Cold Spaghetti

Friday evening, we headed out into the fray early (or so we thought)… and were on the neutral ground by 4:45. Apparently, every person with a ladder within a 300 mile radius had been there sooner and set up their ladders supplied with taser devices to ensure on one infringe upon the PUBLIC space surrounding their ladder by several feet. Some even set up huge caution tape lines. One of the best parts about Mardi Gras is the camaraderie in the lines; folks sharing food, throws, and jokes.
Luckily, Ana spotted us crawling up and down Napoleon and we joined her and their friends, who had the good sense to bring several chairs. Ana (above) settled into our ladder seat with Will. After a few minutes, though, Will flipped out over being up in the ladder (as would be a theme for the rest of the holiday). His spirit was bolstered, however, when he discovered the delights of Doritos in a bag shared by Emmy. It was love at first sight; Will hasn’t quite been the same since.

In the meantime, as dusk settled in, I went to town trying out different techniques to capture the floats as the riders took their places, prepped their throws, and night began to fall. Normally, this would be a flash situation: I increased shutter speed, increased ISO, and played around with exposure to get these shots.
In my opinion, Hermes has the most beautiful floats. The parade “starts” a few blocks from where we were, so we sat at in the staging area of the parade. It was a great place to start the night. Watching them slowly light up as the sun set was almost magical.

(Note: see the caution tape below? For some reason, this seemed endemic this Mardi Gras. What is up, people?)

Ana stayed up on high (that girl is afraid of NOTHING) and chatted to me while I snapped away.
She even offered me a few of her wake-me-up-with-a-bang! flavored Zapp’s chips. That’s Ana, keeping the NOLA Mardi Gras spirit alive!

Hermes was the only parade we saw. At the start of D’Etat (always one of our favorites), it became clear that Kate *had a diaper*. It could not be fixed… the girl was a mess from head to toe. Will was still being freaked out by everything (the flambeau, usually a favorite, was freaking him out, too), and it was getting colder and later. We went home. It had been a big day. It was a good idea; we were much better positioned for Saturday. (Except for Kate, who we realized was unequivocally ill.) Will and I were the only ones to attend parades on Saturday.

We have windows! These were correct, thank goodness. Work has continued…
While waiting for the corrections in the windows, Paul installed the siding trim.
Wait, what’s that?? WE HAVE WINDOWS AND DOORS!!!
The house is now sealed from the elements. Paul removed the plywood wall providing some tiny protection from the wind and we can walk to the backyard from the inside of the house. It’s a ROOM!

Friday morning, Oak Street.
About our costumes. We’re Mardi Gras Superheros: Will is Captain Mardi Gras, Kate is the faithful sidekick Lagniappe, and Paul and I are The Beignet Bunch. The idea came from Will’s obsession with Superheros and a purple cape he made at school.
We’re wearing about 8 layers of clothes each (it was a chilly morning) but the top layer is a purple t-shirt… which was incredibly difficult to find. I ordered from an online t-shirt place; working to find sizes in kids to adults that was going to be the same color was impossible. When the order came, half of the stuff was delayed and we ended up being some in long sleeves (Paul) and some in short. Paul and I are wearing scrubs for bottoms. Will is wearing purple tights from a girls Hello Kitty pajama set I found on sale in some megastore. Kate is wearing a purple glittery jumper that came from Clare. The capes were made by a crafter on Etsy who I highly recommend to any and all; the capes are fantastic (more pics of them to follow) and she was wonderful to work with. I made the embelms with sticky sided felt, glittery felt, and hot glue. Paul spray painted rubber boots with metallic gold spray paint. I was going to make golden shorts for Will but gave up after 30 minutes of hand sewing got really old and talked Paul into spray painting a pair of Will’s underwear. It worked perfectly. Paul’s Helmet came from MardiGrasOutlet.com and arrived the day after we ordered it. Will’s King Hat came from Jefferson Variety, a local hole-in-the-wall supplier of all the fancy fabric and trim for your Mardi Gras costuming needs.

View of the full regala… with Paul and I wearing Abeona’s signature throw: the Golden NuNu.
Kate, getting ready for her ride. She was pretty subdue for the morning.
Emmy lead the way as “Queen of the Boil” (complete with cajun spice and tiny crawfish in her big net skirt). Ana and Will eagerly dolled out loot to watchers. Fun moment: hearing people call out: “Throw me somethin’ Mister!” to them as they went by.
Our band: Panorama Jazz Band! TWELVE musicians! They were absolutely fabulous. It was a great!
There were concerns of how pulling the float would impact it’s delicate construction (and who could drill holes in that beautiful paint job?) — so Paul pushed it. We forgot to make a float sign to go in the front. Something to add for next year’s royalty!
The parade crossing Carrollton.
Back in front of the school… superheros compare their get-ups.
Will and Ana hold hands and smile… preparing for their entrance and Mardi Gras toast!
Entrance of the King and Queen. Notice Will’s face… he didn’t quite have Ana’s sense of drama in this moment. (She waved and walked demurely to her seat.)
Toasting! After watching the Mayor toast the King and Queen of Zulu this morning, I much preferred the sincerity of this toasting.
The Little Man!

We are loving this fun, snappy song, found through a NOLA blog.

Happy Mardi Gras, Everyone!

— The stomach flu hit this weekend. Kate was implicated, having thrown up for a few hours late Wednesday night (she was pretty cool about it… she’d retch in the sink, hold her hand out to run her pacifier under the water, and pop it back in her mouth.) No fever or other symptoms, so we went to school on Thursday and attended the parade on Friday. Friday she started showing signs of feeling unwell (i.e.: she demanded to be held, versus the usual, when she acts like she is being boiled in hot oil when someone tries to hold her). By Saturday, she was warm and even more cuddly. Many many many diaper explosions. My parents came into town Friday for the parade and ended up staying through Sunday morning, because my Mom came down with
something similar Saturday afternoon which kept her violently ill all night. The real fun was that no-one-exists-in-the-world-but-me neighbor partied hearty for most of the night… 6 feet from where my Mom was trying to recover. We are pretty much at wit’s end here, as I am pretty sure the stress from his consistent noise violations is going to give us both ulcers. Fun times.

— But we still have managed good fun. Friday’s parade was awesome, as was the ball (more on that, later.) Saturday, Paul and my Dad installed the door and windows in the back. It is officially closed to the elements. We can walk through the house to the backyard — something we haven’t been able to do in a long, long time. Mom watched cuddly Kate inside while I took Will to a friend’s house for an Iris/Tucks Mardi Gras party and saw parts of both parades. Will was an absolute delight: polite, sharing throws with other kids, so sweetly waving and following “Throw me somethin’ Mister” with “please.”

— Thoth was great. We hosted the parade party/provided the close potty for friends and watched the parade en masse.

— We didn’t attend parades today. Paul worked and I played with the kids (think: long paper art project), took 3 walks, went out to stand in line for our first Randazzo’s king cake (my opinion: good, but a big cinnamon roll, too sweet for me), and stopped by Emmy’s for an impromptu playdate with Ana and Elliot.

— And now, I’m fighting off flu. Typical symptoms. We have a 50% attendance rate going for Fat Tuesday parades and I think that this percentage is going to go down a bit after this year. Which is more than fine here. I’m hoping for a great family day and to feel well enough for some great red beans and rice.

It’ll take hours for my 7-year old computer to eat up all the pictures from the first 2GB card I filled this morning, so here’s a preview from the second set already loaded. King Will (as Captain Mardi Gras) and Queen Ana (Glinda, the Good Witch) toast the start of the Krewe of Abeona Ball, which followed the fantastic morning parade down Oak Street.
It’s a beautiful day in New Orleans — and we’re gearing up for an awesome night (FOUR parades… including the bubbly delights of Muses, which got postponed ’til tonight due to yesterday’s storms.) Four more days of nonstop fun and excitement await here!! We only hope our energy can get us through it!

The kids, as captured by Dad. This wasn’t even after a parade… it was yesterday after school, taking a detour to the ‘burbs on the way home to get felt and paint at the craft store. (We did attend Pygmalion last night, though.)
The float, current state. Fixins’ added tomorrow.
Boots, Paul’s and Will’s. I’m so very much in love and feel strongly that we all may need golden boots.
The ladder. Decided to keep it simple.
The Mardi Gras Superhero emblems. Hooray for felt. Hopefully, the costumes (which are more franken-costumes than actual costumes) will come together!

New business idea: online store that sells MATCHING COLORED universal garments. Matching colored t-shirts, sweats, leggings, tights, hats, turtlenecks, and more — from infant to XXL Super Tall. Finding the same color clothes for matching outfits for all of us was IMPOSSIBLE. So my fingers are crossed that the scavenger hunt over the past month is going to come together.

I SHOULD be spray painting rubber boots, making superhero emblems, and decorating that seriously gorgeous float sitting in our outbuilding. And Emmy just called from the Mardi Gras store… I could be with Emmy in a Mardi Gras STORE!?! My priorities are way out of whack, ’cause that is what I should be doing.

Instead, I’m redoing my consent (or at least complaining about it) because the IRB people don’t like that I wrote a sensible, understandable, useful form (in two languages, don’t forget that part!) I didn’t correctly use their template and didn’t have a running footer with the version date. Apparently, you MUST use their ALL canned fill for ALL project submissions, even when it includes stuff about my salary from the research (what?!) and the potential profit in the sale of body parts (hello, this is qualitative research, people!) I understand and respect the IRB process and generally think it’s super fantastic that they are mandatory, but seriously… isn’t rational thought involved anymore??

Actually, what is pissing me off isn’t all of that… bureaucracy I can reasonably handle. I’m ticked that I requested meetings 3 weeks ago to go over these details and was blown off… three times. So I’m irritated that NOW I’m having to make changes. I guess it could be worse… they could’ve flat out denied me and made me do the whole process again. Aye, when I think about all the trees who gave their lives for this submission…

Hooray and hoorah, I submitted a mammoth-sized pile of documents to IRB today for the Biomedical Review board. Between the multiple copies of everything, the fact that so much of the material had to be in both English and Spanish (with translation certifications), the thing was probably 250+ pages. I practically had to give a blood sample to turn it in… but it’s DONE. Fingers are crossed that any review is minor. Time to move on to hiring staff… but that can wait until next week. Important work presses…

Like finishing the paint on the ladder. Adhering superhero names to our costumes. Adjusting my wig. Finding awesome costume bling. Determining which headpiece is the most appropriate for each parade. Important. Adult. Business. Get out the glue gun; it’s Carnival time!

Paul is making a float for Friday’s Krewe of Abeona parade. He used scrap wood we had in the back from the renovation/addition. Wheels came from the hardware store, although Paul isn’t quite happy with them and designed it so that upgrades may be made in the future. While it is made currently to push, he’s going to attach ropes to the front if folks want to pull it instead. (It works sort of like a shopping cart when pushed from the back and is actually pretty agile, all things considered.)

A few key pieces were supplemented from wood we use to cover the front door transoms when we evacuate during Hurricane season. He figured there was something… appropriate… about using Hurricane protection materials for a Mardi Gras float.

Here it is, before trim.

While he finished trim, I primed the top of our ladder. No idea what we’re going to do with this, decor-wise, but I thought it needed paint nonetheless.

Then we worked together to prime the float before going to pick up the kids. (How could we not knock off a few minutes early to enjoy the gorgeous weather? Not that everyday hasn’t been like this lately!)

After dinner, while I got Kate ready for bed, Will and Paul put on the first coat of purple paint.
It’s now almost 11pm. Paul just left to go to the out building to put the second coat of paint on the float. We’re trying to get the big coats of paint on and done so that they have plenty of time to dry and we have plenty of time for blinging out the rest of the contraption!! We should have stocked up on battery powered lights after Christmas…!

The things we do for our kids.