Mardi Gras Prep

We were busy as little bees today getting all the beads sorted and ready to be loaded....1,000's of beads....many, many boxes stacked according to each person's order. Tomorrow night we do the finishing touches. Thursday night we all go out to the den to party and load the floats with beads. The floats have hooks to hang beads on and they all have to be filled before the parade, which is Saturday. The extra beads have to be stored in special zip up bags marked with our logo...no cardboard boxes allowed on the float. This is a first class organization. No riff raff here!!!

Just a sample...

of the kind of costumes worn by Royalty at the Grand Bal's. This is our queen and the king wore matching attire. Unbelievable how much money is spent by Royalty. They have to buy all their costumes (have them made), all the decorations for their respective tables at the ball, very special beads that they throw and all kinds of other stuff. It's amazing! I had a good time, but it's not an event I really enjoy. I will enjoy the tailgating, float loading parties much more when I can have on jeans and my feet don't hurt. Most of our members stay at the hotel the night of the bal'. I do not. I had one margarita and one beer in the several hours I was there. I'm glad it's over...now the fun really begins with the parades and informal parties. I'll be less uptight then.

Let the good times roll!

Last night we came close to finishing both our floats. The music was blaring from the children's float and everyone was dancing around. It's getting exciting. Of course, when that Mardi Gras song, New Second Line, is playing, it's impossible to be still. We have stacks of boxes containing beads that we ordered in the Krewe den. Tomorrow we will decorate for the Bal', which is Friday night. Sunday we finish up our floats and next Saturday is our local parade. It's the first one we put our floats in. The following weekend on Friday night, we have tailgating float loading parties in Shreveport in preparation for two parades...one Saturday, which is four hours long, and a shorter one Sunday. There are lots more parades, but those are the only 3 I will be riding in. Fun times I am really looking forward to.

"Nuf said"!

Louisiana has gone NUTS! Even the Academy store in Shreveport opened after the game tonight to sell LSU merchandise.

Whoosh!

Usually that is a sound associated with downhill skiing, but right now it is the sound of money leaving my bank account. I finally gave up my last hold on Texas after two years of living in Louisiana. Now I have a cell phone with a Louisiana number. It's charging now and I haven't set up my voice mail, but I will soon. Then I will send out the number to my buds!

O My Gosh! Ohio State already scored. I gotta go! This is serious.

At last!

This is the final rendition of our program for the Bal', which is Friday night. I think it turned out great and I am very pleased with it. I just hope all the others are as well. No one has seen the finished copy. I just picked them up today so it will be a surprise to everyone. It is 24 pages of ads and recognitions and made a profit of about $4000 for the krewe. Not bad! We do a lot of things for the homeless shelter here in our little town.

WooHoo!

I now have two new TV's...both hooked up and running properly. My brother got one for our mom and dad yesterday as well. Next, he is going to get one for him. I still don't have a DVR yet, but I will as soon as they get some in. Still don't have a new cell phone and provider yet, but I hope to get that done next week....then I will be done.

Last night we worked on the children's float....holy crap, it was cold out there. It's in a warehouse and we have one of those big heaters like they have on the sidelines of a football field..only not as big.

Today I gathered up my mom and the things we bought her for Christmas that didn't fit and we went to Belk's. It's real convenient for her because we can park in the handicapped space in her car and they have little carts for her to use like a walker or cane. She found lots of things and bought lots of things. She really enjoyed getting to shop for herself. I usually buy things for her because it's just hard for her to go to the mall...too much walking. It made me happy that she got to do that and enjoyed doing it. I think she got 5 new outfits and a robe for about $275. Everything was 50 % off, so she made out like a bandit.

BRRR!

Right here in the big fat middle of "global warming", our low temp tonight is supposed to be 20. Today, the high was 40. I heard Rush Limbaugh say this morning that every state in the US proper will have a temp of below freezing tomorrow. That's an interesting statistic if it is real. I do not believe that global warming is a problem. I subscribe to the scientific records that show a natural warming and cooling of the planet. Al Gore and Michael Moore are MORONS! I'm just sayin'....

Cheers!

On New Year's eve, I was already in my flannels and had my taco soup made. I was ready to call it a night when someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find a friend standing there in my garage. She told me to get dressed and come on and meet some others out at a restaurant. I did that and was still home by 8 P.M. Wow! How things have changed with age. I used to go out every New Year's and now I don't even care.

Yesterday I went to another friend's for cabbage and black eyed peas. It was good and I really enjoyed watching some of the Planet Earth series on their big ass HDTV with surround sound. It was awesome. I also took a quick trip to Best Buy and bought a new TV for my bedroom. I am going to get DVR for that TV,but right now my provider is out of DVR's. I have to be able to record some shows like Regis and Kelly and All My Children which I cannot do with the new TV because it doesn't have the built in recorder like my old one. I haven't hooked it up yet because I don't know how. I'll get it hooked up by the company when they come to set up the DVR which may be next week.

Today I bought a new TV for the den. It hasn't been delivered yet, but it will be today or tomorrow. I bought it locally so they can set it up for me. I liked it when all I had to do was plug in the sucker and hook it to the cable. Those days are gone. My brother just called and he is shopping for a new one for Mom and Dad. Lightning struck hers a couple of weeks ago and blew it out completely. He can hook theirs up because they don't have digital cable and a cable box to route everything through.

Now I have one more money spending project before I can stop with the outflow of funds. I still have to get a new cell phone and provider. I would love to have an Iphone, but that ain't gonna happen! Costs too much! I have to remember that I am RETIRED!

Since my partying days are over, New Year's is just another day. I do get a little nostalgic each year on New Year's Eve because it reminds me of all the ski trips to Colorado. We always had a great time on New Year's Eve. I'm still trying to get well, but I did go get the car washed. It's essential that my car be clean on the first day of the new year. I got all the yard ornaments at least in the garage...though not in the attic where they will eventually live. I have a few daffodils starting to peak out of the ground, so I planted a few more bulbs that I already had plus about 30 Dutch irises as well. Bulbs are so much fun because to me they are always a surprise. Tomorrow I will have black eyed peas and cabbage at a friend's house and hope the old adage about good health and wealth are true this year.

I am in sticker shock. Today I looked around at TV's. Dayum....I had no idea they were so expensive. Guess I haven't bought one in a while. I really need two now. The store where I looked hardest and where I bought a lot of stuff from when I moved here gave me a calendar. I started putting some stuff on it and discovered it is a 2007 calendar. WTH! I don't need that! Hope that's not how the new year will be!

12th Night

Tonight was the first event of the Mardi Gras season. It signifies the end of Christmas and the beginning of Mardi Gras. All the Krewes in the area get together and introduce the season's royalty. It was also the first time to wear our decorated tuxedo jackets. I wasn't there for long because I am just not well yet. I had one beer, watched the royalty call outs and I was out of there. I couldn't stop coughing and that is just annoying for EVERYONE, so I left and went home where I belonged.

Recovering

After two days of not leaving the house and staying mostly in bed, I think this will be the day I venture out for a little while. I'm not well, but I am much better. My mom is still sick and my sister-in-law is still sick. They both had prescribed meds and my brother and I did not. He and I are almost well, while the two of them are not! A friend brought me some lunch yesterday and I started feeling better after I ate. She didn't come in because I told her how contagious this stuff is.

Last night I had an email from someone wanting to put something in our bal' program....hello........it's at the printer. They had 3 months to put stuff in there. I swear...I will never do that job again!! In fact, I was even thinking last night about not rejoining the Krewe when the time comes.

My doctor's office called this morning and told me the pathology report said they got it all this time, so we are through digging in my hand with a scalpel!

Life is good...

Santa came and was very generous. Looks like I will be getting a couple of new tv's soon....maybe tomorrow! But....my whole family with the exception of my dad is sick. Mom had it first, then my brother, my sister-in-law and I got it. In fact, my sister-in-law is so sick that she had to call off her Christmas at her Lake House tomorrow night with her family. She has been doing that for many years, but she just can't do it now. She didn't even come to Mom's for Christmas dinner today. She made creamed corn and sent it by my brother and he took a plate to her, but she was too sick to eat. She had planned to fry catfish filets and cover them with crawfish e'touffe for her family. Wow! That would have been tasty!! We have told Mom that this would be her last year to have Christmas dinner at her house. She is simply not able to do it. She cooked chicken and dressing because that is what everyone expects, but when I saw how tired she was last night when I went to get them to take them to candlelight service, I told her this was going to be her last year. We would figure out something else to do. My house is too small and my sister-in-law does Christmas Eve at her house. There is another family that is always with us on those two occasions. We used to do Christmas breakfast at their house, but since the kids got big, we don't any more. We'll figure something out. We have a YEAR! Who knows? The world may end first!

Yucky

I am coming down with something that plans to make me miserable for the Christmas festivities. The sore throat started last night, but sort of disappeared today. I noticed last night when we went to eat that Mom had her dishes all piled in the sink, so I went down early today to clean her kitchen for her. She had already put the dishes in the dishwasher. I know she does that every night, but I also know she didn't feel well last night, so I was going to do it for her. I went to the garden and picked me some broccoli and I cleaned her kitchen for her. I came home and steamed the broccoli with some onions, potatoes and carrots, ate it and went to bed. I still don't feel so good, but I am trying to stop this in its tracks. Even if I can't stop it, I have a doctor appointment Monday morning to get my stitches out. He can fix me then with drugs and shots.

Merry Christmas

I just delivered this bird to my aunt at her assisted living facility. He is a big hit. They have one lady convinced the bird is real and I taught him to say everything that he says.

Social Butterfly

I actually thought this was going to be a slower week than last week, but that has turned out to not be true. Lunch with ladies today took a long time and at 5:30 tonight my brother, sister-in-law and I were guests of my 91 year old aunt at her assisted living facility for their annual candelight dinner. It was nice. but the food sucked. I was also her guest last year. Tomorrow night I am going with the family to our favorite restaurant for catfish. I guess Mom is feeling much better since she is willing to go out to dinner. She had another couple of shots today.

I was in Wally World at 7 A.M. getting stuff for my mom. By the time I got to her house, my sister-in-law was on her way over to take Mom to the doctor. She is really sick with a cold. I put up all her groceries, washed her sheets and changed her bed so that she will not re-infect herself over and over. By the time I got that done and cleaned her kitchen and bathrooms, they were back. She got a shot of celestone, which is some magic stuff, another shot and some meds. Tomorrow she has to go back for another shot.

Tonight I had to go to Diamond Jack's, the casino where our Bal' will be held, for a tasting of some new finger foods ( I can't spell hor's de oerves). Some of them were excellent, while others sucked big time. The chef is German and he had a sour kraut ball. Ummmm NOOOOO! I'll be glad when all this Bal' stuff is over. I'm ready for the parades and the fun!

Life is Good!

The last few days have been incredibly busy, but not very interesting. I had a function every night last week, but this week is less filled up. The Bal' program is nearing completion and I will be happy to get rid of that albatross. We are still working on our float and it is awesome. It has lights all over it, music will be blaring, it includes a bathroom and it holds about 40 riders all throwing multitudes of beads. The children's float is nearing completion as well. Life is good!

YEE HAW!

Last night we had our church party for our class. It was in a barn that was way nicer than my new house. I'm estimating $400,000 barn. Sweet for the horses. The horses had not been in it yet. It had a ladies and gents separate huge bathrooms, a kitchen, an office and stables. It had a 20 foot Christmas tree in the middle with hay bales all around it. We went to it on the church bus, which was also very plush. We all took an unwrapped toy and had a couple of Marines as honored guests. Then they took all the toys for Toys for Tots.

My hand has been giving me fits this time. It really hurts and the pain meds he gave me didn't help. Finally, this morning I took the compression wrap off and it started feeling better. The wrap was too tight and my hand was swelling and pulling on the stitches. It's better now. I have another function to go to tonight, but I have been hanging around in my bed all day. It's been raining and cold all day...perfect for doing nothing.

I'm a DEADBEAT!

Last night about 10 my hand started seriously hurting. This was a big surprise because last time I didn't have any pain. I took pain meds and elevated my hand, but it still hurt. Since I couldn't sleep, I went to my mom's early and ate breakfast. She gave me some darvocet because the tramadol I was taking did not work. The darvocet worked and I have been mostly sleeping today. I have a church party to go to tonight, so I will drug myself up and go.