Parade Time

Saturday night the Endymion parade was rained out and postponed until Sunday. So, Sunday we took the kids to see the very beautiful floats of Bacchus which was followed by Endymion.

Here's a picture I took of our krewe wearing balloon hats that we made while hanging out with the crowds waiting for the floats to arrive.

Throw us something, Mister!

Costume Preview

The New Orleans newspaper, the Times-Picayune, asked readers to let them preview their costumes this year, so just for fun I emailed a picture of the whimsical creation that my friend Devra and I have planned. The paper called Thursday afternoon to ask if I could come join the photo shoot for the story they were doing. I couldn't resist.

This morning they ran the story about "fabulous and snarky post-K Mardi Gras costumes". The article is in the Lagniappe section of the paper titled, Grand Delusions.

The first paragraph of the story is particularly hilarious, and just so you know, I am the "crawfish lady" that is mentioned. At least, I assume I am the crawfish lady, since no one else at the photo shoot was crawling with rubber crawfish. The description of that scene in the cafeteria was definitely surreal as it is described. I especially like the first part that says, "Queen Elizabeth carefully applied his makeup".

Each paragraph describes our costumes and includes a photo, although the photos are not on the newspaper's website, so I have posted a copy here. My only dissapointment is that my photo is on the second page of the article which was not in color since color is a big part of our crawfish illusion. I am very pleased with the overall article though. Our spirit definitely shines. And my experience of getting together with other costumers who look forward to the fun and painstakingly plan their attire for the event is a memory I will cherish.

As we all left the photo shoot at the Times-Picayune to head home, we remarked to each other, "See you on Tuesday!" (in the streets at Mardi Gras).

And finally, here's Great site for photos of people in Mardi Gras costumes.

Throw Me Something, Mister!

Just a cute picture that I took of the kids after the parade on Sunday.

Carnival Time

The parades started this past weekend. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Mardi Gras parades? I attended a wickedly sarcastic French Quarter walking parade on Saturday night called Krewe de Vieux . Their parade theme this year was "C'est Levee" and there was a plethora of katrina related costumes including this one with a group of women in their haz mat suits proclaiming in Olympic spirit that they are "Going for the mold!" There were quite a few others that were so funny they had me roaring, but my camera batteries died and I was having too much fun to take pictures anyway.

Sunday we took the kids to a nice family parade in Slidell for the Krewe of Perseus. Their theme also involved recovery efforts and was lots of fun for the kids. Here's a photo of some "Blue Roofers". My friend Devra is coming in two weeks for Fat Tuesday. We have our costumes planned and we are going to take the kids to several more parades.


One sobering note: As I drove home Saturday night through New Orleans, I passed through an area of town that still has no power, no one living there, no life of any kind. House after house after house in complete darkness and completely deserted while they just sit decaying. I must have driven past houses for two miles before I saw life again and could find my way back to the interstate. The whole thing was rather apocalyptic.

Neighbor Roof

My neighbors across the street are having their new roof installed today.

That's their blue tarp all over the ground. The roofers use it to catch all the thousands of nails that come off when they pull up the old roof.

Some FEMA inspectors came to my door yesterday trying to find the owner of the other house across the street so they could inspect the trailer they put there a couple of weeks ago. Things were sort of mixed up because FEMA still has the name of the former owners of the house.

5 Months Since

Well, it's been five months since You Know What. I drove through a neighborhood in Slidell called Kingspoint, about two miles from my house closer to the lake, on my way home from running some errands today just so I could see the progress those folks are making there. It's easy to pretend I'm in a little bubble here in my own neighborhood where at least half of the folks have finished all the repairs on their homes. But outside the bubble, the flooded neighborhoods are a whole other horrible thing.

My heart just breaks for those who are there still struggling with their insurance companies to get money for repairs, and struggling to find contractors to do the repairs, and just plain struggling to put back the pieces of their lives. Almost every home in the neighborhood had a travel trailer parked outside for temporary living. Some of the debris was picked up, but there is a lot more from homes that are still being gutted.

It is going to be a long long time before things are even close to normal for those families whose homes flooded. I took this photo today on my drive to give you some idea: Click the photo to get a bigger more detailed image.

I hope that by publishing pictures like this that it will show the rest of America that we have a long way to go to recover, and will remind everyone to please don't forget us!