1 – date night to Olive Garden
2 – Super 8 was one of the best movies I’d seen in a long time
3 – good meals with family
4 – had a good 4 mile run
5 – finally figured out something to carry my iPhone with on runs
6 – gym time
7 – found out Swamp People would be at the Catfish Festival
8 – found out my favorite Swamp People would be at the Catfish Festival
9 – nice night out in Des Allemands
10 – had a good run in the Catfish Festival 5k
11 – met the Guist Brothers!
12 – fake fight with my sister on Twitter by proxy
13 – safe commute
14 – Harry Potter midnight showing
15 – Britney was awesome
16 – the hotel bed! most comfortable ever!
17 – meal with the in-laws
18 – used the iPhone app for running, it was great
19 – Google+ iPhone app!
20 – closer and closer to finishing a drawing at work
21 – dinner with an old friend
22 – nice post rain run
23 – met Bruce from SP, ate Five Guys, got good deals at an outlet mall, all before 2 pm
24 – my SS return was fun
25 – nice run in cool post rain weather
26 – have perfected a fabulous egg dinner involving 3 vegetables
27 – discovered there’s a Smoothie King right close to my house
28 – crazy free agency activity for the Saints
29 – bought movie tickets while standing in the middle of an Old Navy
30 – got to sleep in!
31 – streamed Swamp People on my phone while waiting in the car
1 – evening lawn mowing
2 – seeing the Mavs comeback live
3 – watching Shaq’s press conference live
4 – visiting family in Plaquemine and Baton Rouge
5 – half price PS3
6 – laughed at the Clemson baseball ineptitude
7 – great evening run
8 – gym time with the wife
9 – purchased something via iPhone for first time
10 – good day at work, celebrated by fun night at Olive Garden in ridiculous clothes
11 – converting VHS home movies to DVDs
12 – watching the Mavs beat the Heat
13 – gym time with the wife
14 – good hard run in the heat
15 – emails about the woot off
16 – Menchie’s after my mom’s birthday dinner
17 – relaxing evening alone
18 – hanging with the in-laws
19 – Father’s Day brunch
20 – quiet night at home
21 – gym time
22 – USA beat Panama
23 – bought movie tickets with my phone in 30 seconds
24 – made it to the new Five Guys, and it was good
25 – wore new linen pants, and they were awesome
26 – good SS class, no stress for my co-teacher
27 – found out the leak in my yard was not a leak
28 – my yard got a lot of rain
29 – my wife returned home from dance camp
30 – the new CFA opened!
1 – relaxing Sunday
2 – wife made awesome soup
3 – good gym time
4 – safe commute
5 – caught mistake on a drawing at work
6 – walking to Sonic
7 – chaperoning a high school prom
8 – finally changed the air filter in my car
9 – trimmed a tree
10 – new carpool meetup spot worked well
11 – dinner with an old friend
12 – class finished!
13 – reminded why my friends and i are awesome
14 – morning of accomplishment and Britney tickets
15 – MVBurger
16 – another ride to Thibodaux
17 – went and checked out the Mississippi
18 – Walking to New Orleans came on Pandora
19 – read an interview with Troy from Swamp People
20 – Yard House
21 – seeing U2 from the inner circle
22 – safe flight home
23 – delicious omelet making after a good run
24 – made progress at work on the project i’m working on
25 – tequila lime burgers
26 – good talk with my boss, who got a phone call right when i was having to leave
27 – Greek Fest 2011
28 – Hangover 2, in lay around the house clothes
29 – good SS, naps
30 – good gym time
31 – good night run
1 – got to ride in a Corvette to work
2 – good run over the Mississippi
3 – led SS solo for first time in a while
4 – wife packed me a piece of doberge for lunch
5 – safe commute
6 – visiting the bank; snowballs at Sal’s
7 – feeling a little less sick
8 – nighttime lawnmowing
9 – found out the wife will get a nice tax refund
10 – family crawfish boil!
11 – good night run
12 – afternoon gardening
13 – got a Twitter response from a host on Top Gear America
14 – Cochon for dinner, Emeril’s for dessert
15 – Menchie’s
16 – “no headbutting”
17 – lunch with new family
18 – booked great deal at hotel for Mardi Gras 2012
19 – bought tickets to supposed sold out show
20 – canceled concert enabled me to spend more time with my wife
21 – safe commuting
22 – another twitter response from a famous NFL writer
23 – sleeping with no alarm
24 – Easter service
25 – finally getting an inspection sticker
26 – twitter fight with an NFL player
27 – saw a last second shot made by an unknown rookie
28 – rode in a Corvette to work again
29 – Thith ith Brathil
30 – Dr John, Tipitina’s
1 – being done with grad school HW for the week
2 – downtime at home
3 – gym time
4 – great outside run
5 – fabulous gumbo at Herbsaint
6 – throwing beads to an old lady with a purple hat on
7 – going to the grocery store my grandparents went to
8 – realizing auditing my grad school class might suck financially, but be one of the best things i ever do
9 – getting my haircut by my professional hairdresser cousin
10 – rehearsal dinner
11 – bachelor night with friends; finding easy parking
12 – everything except Clemson’s basketball game
13 – dinner at Restaurant August
14 – seeing Google Map car on way to Orlando
15 – drinking around the world at Epcot
16 – dude handing off fast passes right as we stood in line for Tower of Terror; Toy Story ride was epic; Snow White showing in courtyard at resort
17 – breakfast with Donald; Everest roller coaster
18 – Mickey’s Philharmagic
19 – picture with the 6th Donald
20 – sleeping late for the first time in a week
21 – first time in Thibodaux
22 – recounting the wedding for people at work
23 – good night run
24 – safety award at work reminded me how awesome my job is
25 – family dinner
26 – u-verse got installed, tequila lime burgers
27 – being back at Sunday School
28 – laughed at this potential Madden 12 cover
29 – made it home before it started raining
30 – randomly filling out numbers on a test
31 – good evening run with my wife
I posted this picture of myself Sunday night, which I will now explain.
(I uploaded more pictures on my Flickr)
I am not sure how many of my readers even will understand this, but I will type about it anyway. As mentioned previously, CZ’s dad is in Endymion. When CZ and I arrived at our hotel on Friday afternoon, her dad called her, and asked her to ask me if I wanted to ride in Endymion if the parade was rained out Saturday night. I’d have to pay $550, but that was it. I told her yes, without really thinking about it. How often do these kinds of opportunities come around? Besides, at that point I figured the parade would not be rained out so I wouldn’t ride anyway.
That night at Herbsaint, he told me everyone had gotten an email that the parade was in fact rained out, I was riding. Also, I had this AMAZING duck and andouille gumbo that ruined me for eating gumbo the rest of the weekend. Dinner was fabulous, watching the parades roll by on St Charles was great, and ending the night at the Carousel Bar was excellent.
The next morning, I went over to the Hilton to meet her dad and go with him to a traditional pre-parade luncheon for members of a few floats. It was pretty cool; they had a live band, open bar, and buffet. The gumbo made me miss the Herbsaint gumbo. The rain came about an hour after we got there and was POURING. The lights even went off a couple of times. We left after doing everything they normally do before Endymion rolls, including second lining and doing Kamikaze shots. I ended up taking home some bananas and grapes. After a trip back to the Hilton that took a few detours, I was able to trade the tux I had rented for the costume I would wear. The guy who was originally going to fill in was going to wear my tux for the ball and luckily he’s the same size as me.
That night at the Endymion ball, we were supposed to get on the floats in costume and ride through the Convention Center. I had never been on a float, much less thrown anything from a float, and now I was about to ride through a massive throng of nicely dressed people on a float with Elvis on the front. All of my throws were already on the float, so all I had to do was organize them on the racks. We rolled through the ball and I threw a ton of stuff. I realized pretty quickly that I was terrible at aiming. I’m trying to throw a football from a moving float with an overhang, and the first few I airmailed over my targets’ heads. After the inside parade was over, I met up with CZ at the table and watched the concert.
The next day was the big day. I put on my costume and walked over to the Convention Center to board the float about 4:30. I had found out where Jacob would be, and where my parents would be. I had put together a bag of stuff for Jacob to get, and set aside things for my parents. We loaded stuff onto the racks and waited. The anticipation was crazy. Once everyone seemed to have their stuff ready, it was cool to look around at the other people without having to say “this is going to be incredible!” You could just feel it. The first few floats rolled out and it was happening.
Rolling down Tchoupitoulas was slow and go. We’d stop for a few minutes, then go, then stop, then go. It seemed like it took forever. The coolest part of the whole night was seeing the shadow of the float on one of the warehouses. You could cleanly depict Elvis on the front, then the people on the top of the float. I checked my phone and saw we were 3 blocks from Napoleon and texted my mom. When we got near Tipitina’s, I saw them. I threw them stuff, and thankfully the crowd wasn’t CRAZY INSANE, so they caught everything I threw them. I was going to throw them beads but they were loaded down so I said “y’all have enough beads!”
We turned the corner to Napoleon and it was like nothing I had ever done. The people were so loud and all over the place. I threw the stuffed animals CZ’s dad gave me to the little kids I saw. I threw the bigger beads I had and tried to get them to people who didn’t seem like they had very many beads. The glow sticks I had to throw were very popular. I have no idea why. People LOVED them. I would throw a bunch at once and people would scramble.
The most awkward thing was when the float would stop. CZ’s dad told me not to throw anything when the float stopped, because the crowd would just expect more. If you threw one thing to someone, then someone else would ask if they could get the same thing. The guy next to me threw when we were stopped, and every time he threw, people would want more. I made myself busy with unpacking more beads while we were stopped, but that did not make the situation any less uncomfortable. The highlight of the ride down Napoleon was the guy who asked for a blinky bead that was “a collectible”. As if I would throw some random dude on the street a collectible pair of beads even if I had any.
We turned onto St Charles, and I knew Jacob was going to be one block off Napoleon. Sure enough, I hear him yelling and saw him. I threw a bunch of glow sticks and had the crowd scatter and was able to hand him the bag. It was a successful handoff!
The farther we got down St Charles, the more the crowd changed. Less little kids, less families, more drunk frat boys. I knew CZ and her mom were going to be near Herbsaint, but I had to cross over to get to the other side of the float. The crossing over was not a problem, and I thought they’d be up near the barricade, but they were kind of far back. Then when we got in front of where they were, we couldn’t see them. I spotted CZ as the float pulled away and tried to toss a football, but I don’t think it made it.
The crowd was noticeably different on Canal. By that time I had gotten rid of my good stuff and was chunking everything I had left. CZ’s dad told me to throw everything because anything I did not throw I’d have to carry off the float. That was not happening, so I was throwing everything. I finally ran out after we had turned on Loyola, so only a couple blocks from the end. The float stopped, and all I had to take off was the stuff I was going to hand to CZ and CZ’s dad canvas bag. I had met a couple of new members at the open house a couple of weeks ago, and those guys did not throw all of their stuff. They had a lot leftover, so they were going to have to take it all off the float. I was glad I did not have anything more to take off than what I had. I said my goodbyes to the guys around me and got off the float.
I met up with CZ’s dad and we ended up walking up Poydras back to the Hilton. We caught up with his friends, and then ended up hitching a ride back when a guy in a black pick up stopped and offered us a ride. That was a blessing, because my legs hurt. After hours of balancing myself from the float starting and stopping, my left leg was really sore. We made it back to the Hilton where we met up with the women. We ate cheeseburgers at 1 am. It was the first food I had eaten since lunch. CZ and I made it back to our hotel about 2 am and I made it to sleep shortly after that. My first time riding on a float in Endymion was over, and now I’m thinking I may want to do it again.
Most of the wedding planning at this point is complete. The only things left are things like the bachelor/bachelorette parties and finalizing the cake. We crashed a wedding at the reception place to see everything in action and taste the food so we could refine the menu to our liking. The big thing I got done last week was finalizing the tuxedos. My mom had called me and wanted to make sure my dad could go with me, which was fine. I called him on my way home one Tuesday night and had him meet me at the tux place by my house. We met at 7 and were both measured by 7:15. I did not leave until 8:15. I have no idea what took the guy so long to enter everything into the computer. I only filled out one page of information. Maybe he was recreating the entire form in MS Paint, I have no idea. I did not take very long picking anything out, so the problem remains a mystery. Once I left I had what I needed and went home. Changing the vest color on my tux was not a problem. Getting them shipped to a different tux place location was, but fortunately the guy who originally helped me was able to get the job done.
Another box checking event was a few weeks ago when we went to a seminar called Day of the Engaged. We’re getting married in a Catholic church, and the rules are you have to attend one of their prep events, and the DotE was the most efficient and cheapest. People were telling me horror stories about the seminars they went to in the past, but I was keeping an open mind. We had to drive to LaPlace for the seminar that apparently is only held every few months. LaPlace is not the most convenient place to get to from the northshore, and we had to bring our own lunch. The seminar garnered high expectations because of all that. Turns out the seminar was led by an older couple who’ve been married for over 40 years. It was pretty awesome. The guy, Marcel, talked most of the time, and I wrote down some of his most interesting quotes. My favorite was when he was talking about different activities you can do after you’re married, “skinnydipping is silly, yet delightfully risqué.” He said this near the beginning of class, and I laughed. It was going to be a good day. Others like “you can’t build a house with two sets of blueprints” were good too. Not sure if that was original or not, but I enjoyed it. It was a great day; we laughed and talked to each other about whatever we were filling out questions for. When they called us up to get our certificate, I shook Marcel’s hand and thanked him. I think we had more fun than a lot of the people there.
8 days
Look, I know Mardi Gras can make things crazy. However, I had no idea exactly how crazy until I tried to book a room for this weekend. CZ’s dad’s in one of the super krewes, so it’s a tradition for her family and friends to spend the weekend downtown. Last year she had booked us into the Sheraton. The insanity of Canal St during Mardi Gras was a first for me. People EVERYWHERE! The hotel was just okay though, so this year I thought we could Priceline a room. We started trying to bid in December. I tried off and on until a couple of weeks ago. Things were getting serious. Obviously for major events, PL is a failure. I was trying multiple websites, Kayak, PL, Expedia, to no avail. The only places available were on the wrong side of St Charles or too expensive. I would try day after day and check multiple times a day. Finally, after getting home from a cooking class where I learned how to make gumbo, I tried kayak and found success. We got a hotel in the warehouse district, for roughly the same price as staying at the Sheraton (WAY MORE than I wanted to spend but at least it’s not $400/night), but this place has free breakfast. WIN! It is across the street from a club that’s going to have free shows all weekend. WIN WIN! We can also walk to everything and the WH has more places with cheap drinks. WIN WIN WIN! Sure, maybe I’m paying the same amount as 4 star hotel to stay at a 2.5/3 star place, but I’m saving on parking, drinks, taking a taxi, and worrying about breakfast in the morning. The free concerts across the street won’t hurt either.
Before Monday night I had no idea how to make a roux. I mean, I knew it was flour and oil, but I had never made my own before. I’ve made gumbo from a box. Please don’t stone me! This has all changed now. About a month ago, my aunt emailed me about a cooking class at this new store by her house and the class was on gumbo, from scratch. We signed up. I’ve wanted to learn how to make gumbo from scratch for a long time. I was tailgating for an LSU game one time where a guy made gumbo on a cooking stove. I wanted to learn how to do that.
I got there after work Monday night, and was the first one there. I thought the class was for 6, but it was actually 6:30. I was able to talk to the chef and walk around the store, so that was cool. She said how she’d need a volunteer to make the roux, so I volunteered. There were about 9 people in the class, and it was one of those places where you bring your own wine. When the class started we sat there and listened to the chef introduce herself and everything. She called me up to make the roux and walked me through everything. All I had to do was stir. I did not let it burn! It worked! It only took 5 minutes! It ended up being the base for a chicken and sausage gumbo that was DELICIOUS! She had some other guy make the seafood gumbo roux that was darker, but that worked too. Amazing! We all left full and happy. It was a great night, and now I know how to make a roux.
1 – turned in HW and had a relaxing evening
2 – Clemson surprised me by getting some GREAT recruits
3 – pre-ordered the Verizon iPhone; dinner with friends
4 – relaxing Friday night
5 – running with the monks with my dad
6 – phone call with my sister recapping a party she went to
7 – iPhone arrived!
8 – finally activated my iPhone!
9 – first full day with my iPhone!
10 – last letter win in Words with Friends
11 – early Valentine’s dinner
12 – staring contest with little kid at Cafe du Monde
13 – soup at La Madeline
14 – post photo shoot oyster and shrimp po-boy
15 – working out a test proctor on short notice
16 – coming home to good leftover food
17 – filling out a company picnic form
18 – got a cool speech to text app for my phone
19 – Endymion den
20 – spending time with my grandfather
21 – painting what I wanted instead of an oyster
22 – gym time for the first time in over a week
23 – talking with my uncle on the phone
24 – Charlie Sheen’s letter of crazy
25 – got tickets for Harry Connick Jr in NOLA
26 – last wedding shower
27 – realizing some things just are not that important
28 – made a roux! finally booked a room for Mardi Gras weekend!