feel the burn

gone too soon, yet again...the weekend was quite fun. saturday was my little brother's birthday (he's 20...20!! gosh i'm getting old...) it's hard to be apart from family during big birthdays and holidays, but somehow we get through, right?! i celebrated his birthday by laying out at the pool too long and getting a vicious sunburn.

sunday stephen gave me some beautiful flowers from roxy & bowie and stuffed me with delicious breakfast tacos. after making our calls to mom, we went out to rangers ballpark to see them play the yankees...they lost but it was still a lot of fun! when i got home, i discovered that even though i put on 60+ spf sunscreen on all my exposed parts (day late, dollar short, i know) i had a bonus sunburn that occurred through my tshirt on my back. wow!! didn't see that one coming...

so the moral to this story is, put sunscreen, all over, no matter what.

how was your weekend??

favorite super bowl commercial

there were some good, some bad, and some straight ugly.  while i think everyone loved "the force" commercial (so, SO cute!) my favorite was the beetle one!! i thought it was clever, cute and unexpected. what was your favorite?

falling in/falling out

in the middle of the night i couldn't sleep. our ceiling fan was making horrendous noises so i had to turn it off, but it was a bit to stuffy to not have any air flowing so i opened up the window next to my bed. this morning the crisp, fall air greeted my face and i woke up refreshed. i also woke up singing which stephen always enjoys ... well probably not so much. but then we got in the car to go to work/school and he played farmhouse, which he knows i can't not sing along to, so this leads me to believe that it's not SO bad :)

so here we are, it's october. my favorite month of the year! i have been a little absent because this is also an incredibly busy time for me, both personally and at work. so i fear that i will probably leave you guys hanging a bit while the whirlwind that is october takes over my life. i still have many things to share and some film to develop from recent adventures. hopefully in my downtime (ha!) i will be able to get some of that done...and of course come by your blogs as well!!

hope you all have a super weekend...i'm going to watch my alma mater beat up on some longhorns tomorrow.

happy weekend and boomer sooner!

(photo)

during the winter olympics

...i love that i can say things like "i'm so tired! i stayed up way too late watching curling and ice dancing!"

 

...oh and ski racing too. man those girls are brave!! 

(photo source)

champions

i never, ever had a reason to care about the superbowl...until yesterday.  wow what a game. i'm still riding high on the feeling - i couldn't be more proud of my home team. way to go, saints, you deserved it!!

 

  

  

  

 

 

"it's like waiting 43 years for someone to say 'i love you' back...and they mean it" - wynton marsalis

(all photos from the la times-picayune)

victory

what a game. what a night. i couldn't be more proud...way to go saints, you made history last night!

i can't wait to see what happens at the superbowl! who dat!

photo from the times picayune.

who dat?

here's a little something you may not know if you don't "know" me: i was born and raised in southern louisiana which makes me a certified coonass and tried and true new orleans saints fan. now, i don't claim to know a lot about sports, but one thing i knew growing up was that you don't have to have the best team to have the best time. heck, in my childhood i knew the saints as "the aints" since they could hardly ever win a game (and anyone who says no fan would ever call their team that didn't grow up there. fans, TRUE FANS, brought paper bags to games to put over their heads if/when they started losing...hey, you gotta have fun with it, right?). here we are, 43 years into the franchise and we finally have something to cheer about! so tomorrow, i'm putting on my drew brees jersey, marching down to the bar and cheering on my saints right here in the middle of cowboy country.

so, in the spirit of the saints, i wanted to share these images and a story sent from my dad:

 

these structures are built for bonfires performed every year to light the way for pere noel at christmas.  here is the email from my dad's friend:

Bonfires have been traditionally built since the 1800's to welcome Papa Noel (or Pere Noel) to the River parishes. They light his way like runway lights at an airport.

Usually 100+ bonfires are built on both sides of the river. It's quite a site to see when burning. Usually they burn them Christmas eve and also New years eve. It's a cool tradition for the folks living near the levee.

In general they are allowed to start building Thanksgiving weekend. They stake out their location on the levee and haul in wood, etc. Some are quite innovative from a visual standpoint. There's your basic four sides pyramid (teepee style), log cabin, steam boat, LA State capital building, LSU (Block letters), etc. Some build two - one to burn for Christmas and one to burn for New Years. You don't pour diesel on the one you're saving for New years and it usually survives. Also, always good to include cut bamboo in the design to hear the snap crackle and pop when it burns.

There are parish rules about maximum size (without an licensed engineer's review), a few basic safety features (no gasoline), no liquid fuel left on the levee unattended, don't keep your beer out in the open, etc. Start dates and "must be cleaned up by" dates.

Also, there is a competition of sorts between the west bank (Vacherie & Edgard) and the east bank (Gramercy & Lutcher). Usually more are built on the west bank and larger ones are built on the east bank.

So over many weekends and many cold beers guys (and some gals) get together and build these. Yes it's a lot of work, hauling lumber, hammering and nailing with chain saws humming for weekends preceding Christmas and New Years eve.

pretty neat, huh? alright, you have your history and sports lesson all in one...i hope you're fulfilled because it probably won't happen again. (unless we win, then i will talk about it until the superbowl)

i hope you have a lovely weekend, and if you feel the urge, shout out a little who dat tomorrow!