Throw Me Something Mister!

Most of you know that today is Mardi Gras (mär'dē grä) or (mahr-dee grah), which is the last day before the fasting season of Lent (40 days of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter).

Mardi Gras literally means “fat Tuesday” (mardi = Tuesday, gras = fat). I suppose the idea is "eat cake for tomorrow we will fast", which has resulted in a general tolerance for a day of gluttony and excessiveness.

As most of you know, New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for its Mardi Gras celebration, as is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (they call it Carnival there), and in Nice, and Cologne (usually in staunchly Roman Catholic regions). Commonly, these celebrations consist of elaborate parades and masked balls usually lasting for about a week before Mardi Gras day. In New Orleans, there seems to be two Mardi Gras... the one no where near the French Quarter. And the one most televised, which is in the French Quarter.

While I'm no proponent of gluttony, I have to admit that one of my favorite "excessivenesses" is the king cake. The king cake most often used is a ring of twisted bread topped with purple, green, and gold icing. Most have filling inside (usually cream cheese). Yum!

The best part about the king cake is the trinket inside. From what I understand, the most traditional trinket is a bean, but all the king cakes I've seen have a plastic baby inside. As the story goes, the "baby in the king cake" was said to have become common after a local bakery chain got a large shipment of such plastic baby dolls from Hong Kong very cheaply in the 1950s.

Did you know it's also Pancake Tuesday?

Pancake Tuesday

In Ireland, Australia, and Canada, Mardi Gras is known as "Pancake Tuesday" - which is exactly what they would do on this Tuesday -- eat a pancake! Pancakes are eaten to use up milk and eggs, which are not eaten during Lent, and would otherwise spoil during this period. Cooked like a French crêpe, the pancake is served with sprinkled sugar or drizzled with syrup (sounds very similar to the king cake) And, as a matter of fact, I found out that in Newfoundland, objects are baked into these pancakes (viola!). Apparently, these objects all have meanings associated with them. Finders of the coins will be rich, finders of the ring will be the first ones married, etc. (which sounds very similar to the New Orleans tradition of baking these sorts of items into the wedding cake).

With all this talk about food, I'm hungry.

All for now,
Lisa

source: http://www.answers.com/

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans

Do you know what it means
To miss New Orleans
And miss it each night and day
Well I know I'm not wrong
The feeling's getting stronger
The longer I stay away
Miss those moss-covered vines
The tall sugar-pines
Where mockingbirds used to sing
And I'd like to see the lazy Mississippi
A hurrying about to spring
The moonlight on the Bayous
Those Creole tunes that fill the air
You know I dream about magnolias in bloom
And soon I'm wishing that I were there
Do you know what it means
To miss those Red Beans
When that's where you left your heart
And there's one thing more I miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans

All for now,
Lisa

Life Keeps on Rollin'

Yesterday, I visited Cactus Records for one of the last times. Very sadly, it is closing on March 31 after over 30 years of business! That day will be a sad day in Houston. It was always a treat for me to wander in to that store just to lose myself in all those great CDs. Each time I'd go in I'd always manage to uncover a great find. And yesterday was no different.

In those well-used bins, I found "Our New Orleans" which is a benefit CD that has just recently been released. The good news is that all net proceeds will be donated to the local relief efforts of Habitat for Humanity, with a portion specifically set aside to provide housing for local musicians left homeless by the disaster. Just recently, I blogged that we need to keep these folks in the forefront of our minds and not forget to help them. This is another way you can help! And have a great CD to boot!

Here's what Amazon says about it:
Hurricane Katrina may have devastated New Orleans and surrounding Gulf communities in 2005, but it was also a forceful reminder of the Crescent City's world renowned status as the epicenter of much American musical heritage. This benefit album picks up that latter thread, a sometimes bittersweet reminder of how deepy ingrained, yet all-too-fragile, that cultural legacy really is.

Click on the above link to purchase it! It's just that easy.

One other review stated:
Of all the concerts and benefits put on by the music industry in aid of New Orleans in the wake of this year’s hurricanes, Our New Orleans has to be one of the most heartfelt and flat-out best collections of music from and about the Crescent City. It will not only benefit the city’s coffers (actually Habitat for Humanity, in their efforts to rebuild the city) but also serves to document the depth and profound musicality of the city, as well as serving as a calling card promoting the glories of New Orleans’ past to whole new generations of listeners.

All for now,
Lisa

Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

I received this in an email from a co-worker:

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it 'in.'
5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
6. In the memo field of all your checks, write “for smuggling diamonds.”
7. Finish all your sentences with “in accordance with the prophecy”.
8. Dont use any punctuation
9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
10. With a serious face, order a diet water whenever you go out to eat.
11. Specify that your drive-through order is “to go”'.
12. Sing along at the opera.
13. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.
14. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.
15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.
16. Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, “rock bottom”.
17. When the money comes out the ATM, scream 'I won!, I won!'
18. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling “run for your lives, they're loose!”
19. Tell your children over dinner. “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”

So, how do you maintain a healthy level of insanity?

All for now,
Lisa

Blue Tarps and White Trailers

On a whim, I decided to go to New Orleans this past weekend for the Mardi Gras Marathon. A good friend was going to run the marathon and I was going to run the 5K while also supporting her in the last couple of miles of the marathon. Unfortunately, it ended up that she could not run the marathon because of a lingering injury. We both ended up doing the 5K, which was a lot of fun (the weather could not have been better - blue skies and a cool breeze). The run was also was a nice punctuation to a wonderful weekend.

It was an eye-opening weekend.

We took Saturday to drive around the city of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. Folks, their ordeal is no where near over. The city is heavily dotted with blue tarps covering half-blown away roofs and white FEMA trailers parked in "trailer cities" as well as in front of once water-saturated homes. The strange thing is the eerie quietness of the city. Entire subdivisions still do not have electricity and there are no inhabitants. The other odd thing is that no one seems to be occupying the trailer cities. They are barren. Cars are parked outside of homes. Not because their owners are inside, but because they have not been moved from where they were before the water covered them.

I took some photos. The link is at the left.

It's been 5 months since Katrina and Rita. Let's not let time fade our memories and still us from action. They still need our help.

All for now,
Lisa