Did you know you could fly

Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a lot of fun, except for the part where I trip over the curb and end up twisting one ankle and scraping up the other knee. Thank goodness for the numbness that immediately succeeds traumatic skin injury, as I had to dig a pebble the size of buckshot out from *under* the mangled skin of my right knee with my fingernails. My left ankle is a little swollen, but it's twisted, not sprained, so it should heal relatively quickly. Meanwhile, I'm going to go with my bandaged knee and sore ankle and take a nap!

I went to the Baton Rouge Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade yesterday. It was the perfect day for it too -- Warm but not too hot, and at least it had stopped raining. So of course this means -- bead count.

Multi: 6
White: 1
Silver: 4
Gold: 20
Red: 5
Pink: 23
Green: 22
Blue: 7
Purple: 21

Total: 109

Colour      # yesterday     Total

White        6              15
Gold         31             45
Silver       8              17
Black        2              2
Red          3              6
Green        34             57
Blue         9              12
Purple       25             43
Pink         27             33
Multi        1              2

Total        146            232

First parade of the season tonight. It was a small one, but fun.

First bead count:

White: 5
Gold: 4
Silver: 1
Red: 1
Green: 7
Blue: 1
Purple: 10
Pink: 2

Total: 31

So Elisabeth and I went down to the French Quarter to see Flogging Molly on Sunday night. I was actually a little disappointed -- didn't see much of the drunken revelry that the French Quarter is renowned for that close to Mardi Gras. Then again, we didn't go on Bourbon Street.

Anyway, the concert was incredible. They played pretty much every song I wanted to hear. My only disappointment was that they didn't play Black Friday Rule, but as they played everything else, I guess I can forgive them. The energy, as always, was perfect. Elisabeth seemed to have a good time too.

Yesterday, Isaac and I went to New Orleans for the parades. We saw the Zulu parade, the Rex parade, the tail end of the Elks parade, and the Crescent City parade. It was very crowded, so much more competition for the throws :) But all great fun nonetheless. Much more in the way of bands and such, and far more elaborate floats. Plus, this time I came away with two stuffed animals out of the deal, so it's all good.

I can't wait for next year.

So I went to the Spanish Town (Baton Rouge) Mardi Gras parade today. It was great. I had good timing too -- it rained before the parade, and right after I left, but not really during the time I was watching. I was up near the beginning of the route, so I left when the last float passed by me. Those further down the route were undoubtedly standing out in the rain.

The theme this year was "FEMAture Evacuation", so all the floats were riffs on the Katrina disaster and (pitiful) response. The floats bore slogans like "Drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was GONE" and "FEMA: When disaster strikes, we'll be there, to wish you luck!". Plus there were plenty of caricatures of Bush, Brown, Blanco, and Nagin. One float had a map of downtown New Orleans with all the streets renamed after chocolate brands (Hershey Blvd, Godiva Ave, etc.).

And of course there were tons of beads being thrown. I even managed to catch a few plastic bangle bracelets I'll have to wear to New Orleans on Tuesday.

All in all a very fun time to be had at my first Mardi Gras parade.

Friday: New laptop arriving. Hopefully.

Saturday: Spanishtown Mardi Gras parade in downtown Baton Rouge.

Sunday: Flogging Molly concert in the French Quarter with Elisabeth and Isaac

Monday: Vacation day. Rest. Play around with laptop.

Tuesday: Mardi Gras, library closed. Mardi Gras in New Orleans with Isaac.

Wednesday: 1/2 vacation day. Go back to work at noon. Show off laptop at work.