The Mysterious Case of the Mischievous Meat Mishandler...

Today was such a nice day that this evening I decided to take a walk over to the DQ and get a peanut buster parfait. I haven't had one since overdosing on them last summer. I had a craving and thus...I went. Julian didn't want to go, so I hoofed off on my own while he and Jaime went to Rouse's to fill the water jugs. We were all arriving back at the house at the same time as we saw a chase ensuing over in the Rouse's parking lot. A scraggly man was running through the parking lot being chased by 4 or 5 Rouse's employees. As he got closer to the road, he dropped "the contraband" and kept running. Apparently, the employees weren't satisfied with him "returning the goods" so they kept chase into the field behind our house. At that point, a few more employees walked over and I asked them what he did. They said he tried to steal some meat. Then, I saw one employee doubled over in our field and the "mishandler" lying face down in the grass. I didn't see the events that lead up to that but a few more employees started coming over and I asked if they needed me to call the police. They said they had already called them and they were over there--and they pointed toward Rouses. I still haven't figured out why the police were at the store and EVERYONE else was in our back yard. Then, a few more employees came over and asked if I had seen a bunch of employees dressed like them and in between bites of my ice cream, I pointed to where they were. I was wondering who was minding the store with all the employees in our field and the seemingly managerial types just arriving. Maybe they were coming to rustle their employees back to their work place. The police came and hauled the poor guy off to where I am hoping he was able to get a meal to fill the hole that he was so desperately trying to fill. Another exciting day in Houma...

Residency Match Week

Well this is residency match week for those who are at that point. We have many friends that have matched but still don't know where they are going. The match is such a strange process. During match week they tell you on Monday whether or not you matched and then string you along 'til Thursday before they tell you where. It is sort of like a form of torture for those poor people! I think it is all part of the residency match "game" because if they know you matched, they must know where you are going...I just don't get it. So anyway, I will update later in the week and let you know where our friends are going.

The Alligator Man

Yesterday I was heading over to Walmart when I saw The Alligator Man parked on the side of the road. He was in a very busy area on a road that cuts out between Home Depot and Walmart. It is a busy spot so I thought it was weird. I was at a light so I was able to watch him noose and wrestle an alligator into his truck. It was pretty weird. The alligator was about 4 or 5 feet long. Welcome to Louisiana!

Fishy Face

The weekend before Mardi Gras began, Julian and I spent the night at the Morrison's house. We went to one of Jacin's baseball games, had dinner, and then played Apples to Apples. It is a really fun game. You have two sets of cards. One set has adjectives and the other set has nouns. Each person gets 7 noun cards for their hand. The person who is "up" (its their turn) picks an adjective card and reads it out to the group. Each person then has to pick the noun from their hand that they think most closely matches the adjective. The person who is "up" gets to choose which one, out of all the cards put down, most closely matches in their opinion. Sometimes you don't really have anything that even remotely matches so you have to think like the person who is "up" and choose the one that they might choose. So anyway, we didn't get done with dinner until close to 9:00 so we didn't start the game until late. By 11:00 Julian was punch-drunk giddy and finally went to bed. He loves the game though. I think Jacin was already in bed at that point because he was tired from his game. Jen, Jacquelyn and I continued to play and were up til way past midnight. It was so fun. Then for some reason we got started doing the fishy face thing and Jacquelyn was making fun of my fishy face and "needed" a picture of it. We were all laughing so hard and I finally calmed down and did my fish face so she could take a picture and I was waiting and waiting and she was laughing and laughing and finally I looked at her and said, "What's taking so long?" And she was taping me, hahahahaha. It was so dumb and funny, we were all in hysterics! Good times with the Morrison gang...

Mardi Gras

Well Mardi Gras 2009 came and went. It started out with the Little Rascals parade which was a huge dud and we were worried when we caught only a few beads. Then near the end of the parade there was a sign on one of the floats that said "Due to the economy, we are throwing less beads" or something to that effect. It worried us. Julian and I went to a parade the following weekend in Houma and found that they were VERY generous with their throws. Julian and I walked away from the parade with two bags full of SHWAG! We were excited and had the FEVER. We knew that the Morrisons were going to be at a parade in Metairie that night to watch Jacquelyn march, so I decided to take a trip up there to join them. Jim had his boss's kids with them. They are each a bit older and a bit younger than Julian so I knew it would make it fun for him. That parade is wehre most of these pics are taken. All but the one with me in the hat. As I was trying desperately to get throws, Jim was easily getting them all with no effort. I told the boys that he must have some code word that he uses to get good beads. I told Jim also and he said its all about the eye contact. So I tried it and the first thing I got...was the garter. I laughed so hard. I told Jen the title of that photo is "eye contact." After that I ended up with lots of good beads. It was so much fun!

The following week I ended up with a nasty cold that Jaime brought back from Shreveport with him. He got sick first and then I got it. Julian has so far been unscathed by it. I wanted to badly to join the Morrisons in their frolicing but just knew I shouldn't push it. By Saturday I was feeling much better and I decided to join them in the city for the Baccus parade. I had researched the parades and Baccus was one that I really wanted to go to. Their theme was creatures. They have all kinds of floats with creature themes. Witches, ghouls, monsters, cyclops', dinosaurs, etc. They also have King and Queen Kong and Baby Kong floats which you are supposed to throw beads back at. It is really funny. Anyway, I decided to go to that parade. At the last minute Julian got a better offer and went to his friend Michael's house. Jaime doesn't like Mardi Gras, plus he was studying so he stayed behind. I went down to N.O. by myself and fought for a parking spot in the city. I ended up parking 12 or so blocks away from our meeting place. Thank god for cell phones because I never would have found them otherwise. I was waiting in front of the wrong school! I was on the wrong corner. I only had to go a few hundred feet to the other school but there were thousands of people. Jen said, "oh we just set up in the median." I told her there was no setting up in the median because it was chuck full of people. Once I found them, they had a great spot and the parade started soon after that. It was lots of fun. I was glad Julian wasn't there. Too many people to keep track of him. I think it would have made him nervous too! But we had fun! Jacquelyn and Jacin were there and Jim and Jen and Jim's friends that came down for "the holiday." We got lots of good beads and had a great time! That was my last parade of the season. The pic of me in the hat was taken near the beginning of that parade. Good times.......