Cold Spaghetti

I am always impressed by my friend, Robin — whose “nursing while training” moment made the pic’o the week for Inside Triathlon.

In this city, St. Patrick’s is serious business. Two weeks of parties, parades, music, and food — everything accented with Guinness and Green.
We missed last week’s parades and events. This weekend, we attended the main parade, which runs through the Irish Channel neighborhood. It goes down Louisiana to Magazine Street, right past the home of friends Denice and David — who hosted us (and others of the Abeona clan) for a parade party.
It was standard New Orleans… big floats, great bands, food, families, and fun. It is much like Mardi Gras (even with many of the same floats and throws) except much more green. And much more alcohol. And PRODUCE.
St. Pat’s signature throws are PRODUCE. Specifically, cabbages. You have to be careful (particularly with kids) because those things pack a wallop. Along with cabbages, other garden-inspired throws include potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and even cucumbers (thrown suggestively to Katrina of La Divina with slow air kisses from a young stud on the float).
To round out our diets, the riders also threw packaged baby carrots, moon pies, and goldfish crackers, which we munched while watching the parades. We took home the Ramen noodles and had several of the packages for dinner that night (really).
Looking up Louisiana at the line of floats.
Corner of Louisiana and Magazine. Magazine was wild with fun and excitement as the crowd reached Parasol‘s.
We had to be careful with Will and the MoonPies — he wanted to eat everyone he caught!
Irish undies, anyone?
I have no idea what this was about.
These are extra tires that get pulled in case of a flat. This is the first time we’ve seen riders passed out drinking in them.
There were many (out of order) floats for Skip’s Wild Irish Clan. Apparently, my kid brother gets around?
Paul bonds with his St. Baldrick’s buddy, who we found out is friends with Denice and David, too.
Paul and Kate.
More floats on Louisiana. The conversation among riders and walkers was consistently about going to the bathroom. The parade is extremely slow — mostly because people stop to use the restroom in friends’ homes along the route.
Parents hang out while floats wait to roll.
Riders pass goodies to onlookers… see any veggies?
The guy on the left is about to toss me a potato.
See the guy on the left tossing a carrot?
I made a veggie dish with everything Sunday night. We gave our neighbor the cabbage. She said she’s going to make a dish with it and then bring it over to show us how to do it.
Some more of our St. Patty’s loot. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

To Will and Kate fans (ie: grandparents): many recent albums are up and available!

How many degrees are you?

This excellent post highlights the history of natural disasters and floods throughout our country and how we all, to one degree or another, live with the risk of disruption due to natural events.

After our flat tire Thursday night, we went to dinner at Mona’s around the corner (too late to cook) and were so impressed with how well Will ate grilled vegetables and chicken with basmati rice and feta (and drank our Lebanese tea) that we agreed to his suggestion of visiting La Divina.
I had the camera with me and decided to practice night-time shots and after getting an okay from the staff working the store, had fun taking artsy-fartsy pictures of cones, panini, and gelato. Paul’s pink hair made it a little extra fun. (Can you spot him in the picture above?)I was happily snapping away when a man approached and asked if I was planning on opening a gelateria. Paul and I laughed and explained how we knew the family and the man introduced himself as their web designer, Gary Reggio. We had a great time talking to him and he asked me to take pictures of a variety of things for the website. It was FUN. What (if anything) gets used remains to be seen, but I would love the opportunity to re-shoot in daylight. Another New Orleans moment.

More news later, but here is the picture you’ve been waiting for…Happy St. Baldrick’s Day!

A STICK to the New Orleans’ Waste Management division/Office of the Mayor for the RIDICULOUS trash system we now have. We have all been issued HUGE trash cans that are suppose to facilitate automatic lifting. Has the person who made that decision ever been to New Orleans? Seen pictures? Even thought about what a 100-year old neighborhood might look like?
Show me a New Orleans neighborhood where every home can get a GIGANTIC trash bin into a side alley or back yard and has the street space for 5 foot of clearance on either side for trash day — show me this and I’ll show you monkeys flying out of my butt. Seriously, people! As if! The result: trash cans on the sidewalks and in front of people’s homes. Oh, and if that unsecured trash can gets lost — it’s a $75 fee to the homeowner. STICK STICK STICK!

And a BIG FAT CARROT to me for forgoing the antibiotic for Kate’s last ear infection! She had a stellar check-up today — two healthy, good-looking ears! Hooray for wait-and-see and hooray for me for having the gall to do it! CARROT!

Step One: Bleach Hair.
Scare neighbors.
Make calls. See who can guess your hair color.
Step Two: Decide to make it more interesting. (We couldn’t find green and settled for pink because I liked it.)
(Extra bonus: your wife decides to show support by tinting hair, too.*)
Scare neighbors again.
Attend Board Meeting for kids’ school.
Visit with lots of friends and neighbors. Go to the store for wife.
Just to make sure enough people have noticed, arrange to have a flat tire away from home.
Have you ever seen a man with pink hair changing a tire?
Then go out to dinner and gelato. That’s a lot of hair to loose tomorrow!
* I used “light red” henna. Rinsed way too soon out of concern for us being late for the Board meeting. No real red look… unless you have really good eyes and know what to look for…

…and a maniac.

Or, as said by her teacher, Ms. Gladys, “Kate is different.”
I’d be concerned if she didn’t say the same thing about Kate’s best bud, Stella. Stella is 5 days older the Kate and equal in her rough-and-tough, into-everything, early-mover style. They play peek-a-boo at school, stopping to glare at anyone who tries to get involved and then moving to another side of the room to continue. They tag-team tearing up the changing table, so that a teacher is dealing with the mess one made in the front without seeing the other one re-making a mess at the side. They wake up sleeping babies (actually, this one could be just Kate). They blow kisses and screech to each other across the room (to be fair, Stella blows kisses. Kate screeches.)
So Kate is 10 months old. She’s been struggling with an ear infection diagnosed last week. The pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic… a serious antibiotic (Omnicef… the one that caused all the problems for Will last year where I swore I’d never do antibiotics for ear infections ever again).

After careful consideration, research, and deep thought, I decided to forgo the script in favor of wait and see, using Motrin, warm compresses, and nursing to treat pain. She seems to be doing much better, although she still has a cough (improved, though) and her nose is still a bit runny (particularly in the morning… allergies?) At 10 months Kate…
– Weighs about 17 1/2 pounds
– Walks across the room (15 or so steps), but then remembers how much faster she can crawl and gets back on all fours
– Adores her big brother
– Practices gymnastics while nursing
– Babbles and babbles and babbles
– Strongly favors her right hand
– Loves to wave!

During Violet’s visit, we took a walk in the park, enjoying the neighborhood fiddle player practicing his tunes and taking in the egrets and ibis that were nesting along the park’s interior island. On Sunday, we took the kids to the park to feed the ducks, see the birds, and just generally enjoy the beautiful day. Thank goodness for wagons! Perfect for the occassion.
The morning was overcast, so it is harder to make out the many birds against the white sky. They were everywhere!
Seagulls, too.
Ducks everywhere, as usual… even in hidden spots!
Will took over pulling the wagon for awhile. Kate LOVED it.
Will was sporting a straight-outta-Boca look of bermuda shorts, palm tree top, white socks, and dark sandals. Oh — and Superman shades.
Looking to Oschner Island.
Will insisted on taking the path through the Audubon Golf Course.
Loyola’s chapel rang and played tunes while we walked through.
Will found a golf ball! (And Paul pointed out the mini-cache hidden under the bridge.)


The tree (below) lost one of its enormous branches in Katrina’s winds.
Houses along the park.
Crazy Kate, chattering away at her brother. (One of her teachers has decided that Kate sounds like a “pterodactyl”).
Egrets were flying all over the park. Hanging out in people’s yards on the parks edge, flying through the walking paths, getting in the way of golf carts. This one is flying out towards Magazine Street at Audubon Zoo.
Egret and golfers.
More egret and golfers.
What a lovely morning!