Mardi Gras

"Mardi Gras is not a parade. Mardi Gras is not girls flashing on French Quarter balconies. Mardi Gras is not an alcoholic binge.

Mardi Gras is bars and restaurants changing out all the CDs in their jukeboxes to Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers, and it is annual front-porch crawfish boils hours before the parades so your stomach and attitude reach a state of grace, and it is returning to the same street corner, year after year, and standing next to the same people, year after year- people whose names you may or may not even know but you've watched their kids grow up in this public tableau and when they're not there, you wonder: Where are those guys this year?

It is dressing your dog in a stupid costume and cheering when the marching bands go crazy and clapping and saluting the military bands when they crisply snap to.

Now, that part, more than ever.

It's mad piano professors converging on our city from all over the world and banging the 88s until dawn and laughing at the hairy-shouldered men in dresses too tight and stalking the indians under the Claiborne overpass and thrilling on the years you find them and lamenting the years you don't and promising yourself you will next year.

It's wearing frightful color combinations in public and rolling your eyes at the guy in your office who- like clockwork, year after year- denies he got the baby in the king cake and now someone else has to pony up the 10 bucks for the next one.

Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods and our joy of living. All at once."

-an excerpt from the book "1 dead in attic" by Chris Rose




To all of you who have never lived in South Louisiana, you may have experienced Mardi Gras, but... you only got a small taste of what it is to "experience Mardi Gras". It's not just an event. It's a celebration of our way of life.

uncle sam who?

taxes still aren't done.

.. that's all for now.

my most literal labor day weekend yet

so, i got this in my email today...
i think it about sums up my labor day weekend.



but it's okay... because we're in good hands.... right?? -

Quote from FEMA Director Michael Brown, Aug. 28, 2005:

"FEMA is not going to hesitate at all in this storm. We are not going to sit back and make this a bureaucratic process. We are going to move fast, we are going to move quick, and we are going to do whatever it takes to help disaster victims." -


right.

switcheroo

new look, new attitude. we're going big baby. i've changed up my links, so check 'em out. also, my photos are now a tad larger, so please excuse the differentiation (ha!- i didn't even have to look up the spelling).

so this sunday the clouds dumped a ton of water down on the good folks of south louisiana. had i not been getting heavily sedated by the lafourche teacher awards banquet, i probably would have also gotten soaked. but luckily, the rain had stopped by the time the awards were all handed out. the banquet wasn't all bad though, they did have a pretty entertaining comedian and some righteous grub. mostly just grilled chicken and shredded cheese for me though. oh, and the three amigos showed up to sing "feliz navidad" which i thought was a little odd. don't worry.. i'll spare you those photos.

here are a few from the flood- near the intersection of tunnel blvd and levron street in houma.

this is my favorite from the day:


matt shooting in flood waters:


me in a pirogue with some random dude... he rode me through the neighborhood so i could take some more photos- this was before i got attacked by ants. i had to end up throwing my socks away because i couldn't get rid of those little boogers.


you can see more of my flood photos on my photo blog here.

i've also updated my website, so if you'd like to take a look, click here.

... aaaand here's one from my gaffers tape moustache fiasco. i couldn't get it to stay on my face. dumb ol' non-sticky "been used 14 times already" gaffers tape. pleh.


as an added bonus, you can now subscribe to this blog (top right hand column), so no fear.. you can now have emails coming to you everytime i update my blog.. as you can see, is about 5 times a year :)

life, liberty, and the pursuit of a big "bang"

this year for the 4th, we did what we normally do. we blew some junk up. except we got a little more creative this time. instead of investing our hard earned "dollas" at the fireworks stand on those cheap cardboard thingamagigs with firecrackers sticking out the back, we took a little trip to the local dollar general. we bought some toy boats, some orange plastic cones, and a few other things:


then we headed to val's for some homemade slip'n slide fun and what else.... that's right, you guessed it (well, some of you probably did anyway)... crawfish. i mean.. 4th of july without crawfish is like bread without butta'

here's some photos from the day:

brandi and taylor acting silly


let the sliding commence-






taylor thought i was a surfboard, apparently


mmmm... crawfish


icky fingers


benji sucking the heads (eeeewww)


val getting ready to bust into that capri sun


dad's still hungry


..... and now... onto the blowing stuff up section of this post..

taylor and her sparkler


fireworks that explode underwater??? um... heck yeah!


matt hopping around in front of a firework that acts like a strobe light


.... and what happens when you strap an artillery shell to a plastic boat??


that's right. ... "kaboom"

you can visit here for more fireworks photos.

and in the words of daffy duck-
"goodbye folkttthhh"

that poor dog

i've been playing around with some lighting techniques lately... now, why would i do this do you ask. (okay, maybe some of you didn't ask.. okay okay.. nobody asked alright! but that's okay because there's no need to ask. i'll just tell you..)

because it's fun, that's why.

well, taylor decided to bust out the slip'n slide the other day and i decided to bust out my flashes -strapped them to the swingset with bungee cords.. attached some remotes, and *voila*.. we had a grand ol' time. until she brought out the dog (that poor dog)... yeah, mackenzie (the dog) was NOT having a grand ol' time. she doesn't like being bathed in the bathtub standing still... i seriously doubt that flying down a strip of plastic at the speed of a galloping pregnant elephant, covered in strawberry soap being held in taylor's death grip thrilled her at all.

anyway- here's a few photos. enjoy.














just 9 more months 'till girl scout cookie season... woohooh.

-4th of july photos on my next post :)

little bit 'o video and a whole lotta humor

a little something to make you laugh.
(and don't be afraid to replay this 43 times- i know i did)..



oh, yeah.. and this too..



and folks, if you haven't yet seen our "wanker report" videos, please check 'em out. this is what matt and i do with time on our hands ((evil laugh))..



#2:


#3:


and the other day we visited the the insectarium in new orleans..


you can click on matt's profile and check out other videos he's uploaded.

we're pretty interesting people, if i do say so myself :)

jazzfestiness

it's that time of year again!

jazz fest!!

matt and i hit up the festival today for the jazz madness kickoff. we saw the mardi gras indians (creole wild west tribe), a brass band parade, alison krauss with robert plant, and ozomatli with chali 2na who were awesome- (thanks ben for the suggestion).. who got down into the crowd and paraded around, then formed a little band circle right in front of us and played for a while. it was pretty awesome. they also let members of the st. augustine marching band perform with them (freaking rocked).

oh, and as a bonus, we got to hang out backstage at the fais do do stage with my co-worker chuck (who can be easily spotted wearing his highly visible fluorescent orange jazz fest hat and feathers). we hung out and listened to dwayne dopsie for a bit while we hydrated and dehydrated (if you get my drift).

the weather was great, the food was great, and the music, well... of course, great.

here are some photos i snagged with my phone:


here's matt in the crowd with ozomatli


here's ozomatli performing with the st. aug band in the crowd


me in the crowd with ozomatli & the st. aug band


alison krauss and robert plant


me and terrence simien (with his grammy!!)-
that's right, be jealous of my grammy holding abilities



i'll be headed out there with rennie on sunday (for sure) for the voice of the wetlands allstars and tim mcgraw. should be awesome (and wet- supposed to rain... wish us luck)!!

oh, and if you've never been... you GOTTA come... you just GOTTA!


and by the way.. if you haven't already heard, my good friends valerie and dustin are now the proud parents of little baby brylen james parkhill weighing in at 7lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. he's happy, he's healthy, and he poops. what more could they ask for?! congrats val, dustin, and big sister katelynn!! -you can view photos of him in my myspace photo albums at www.myspace.com/mistymacrocks

g'night y'all!

taxes

still not done.

the end.

and the mentos have it!

happy late easter everyone!

oh, and happy late blogging also. i finally got the itch to share a little sumpin' sumpin' with you fine folks, so enjoy (or not, you know whatever.. i'm not telling you what to do or anything).

well, this week has been full of easter-type festivity stuff. thursday i went to taylor's school and hung out with her class and got to witness an easter egg hunt, egg-dying, and recess (oh my!).

here's a photo of taylor's class (a very hard image to capture, might i add)..



now.. i don't know how many of you were treated as kids, but when i was a kid, easter egg hunts consisted of "hurry and get what you can and see who gets the most". today? no. not allowed. why? because that would be "unfair" to the kids who get less eggs. taylor's class had to line up and run out when they said "go".. and then what?? they ran like mad to get as many eggs as possible?
no.
they ran like mad to each get their limit of 13 eggs.
that's right. limit. of. eggs.
so what if one kid gets 5 and the other gets 20. that just means the other kid could fly. oh, wait no? they can't fly?? oh right.. it just means the other kid was faster. and what's wrong with being rewarded for being faster?? nothing. nothing at all.

back when i was a kid, the phrase "tough tootie" pretty much summed up any competitive activities for me. yeah sometimes i lost, and yeah i didn't always get as much as other kids, but to me, that's the fun.. trying to see who can get the most.

alright. moving on...

here are some photos from the easter egg hunt:




taylor checking the grubbage inside her eggs

for easter, taylor got a mentos and coke experiment kit in her basket. so, what a better time to try it out than when the family gathers 'round....

the first bottle of coke we tried was a dud. it had only been sitting in my pantry for the last 3 years or so. but no fear... matt and i headed down to the local piggly wiggly.. uh.. i mean, walgreens and loaded up on armfulls of 2 liters of carbonated goodness (not for drinking of course, otherwise we would have gotten the regular coke). we also picked up a few extra boxes of mentos "just in case" (in case matt got hungry).

and if you've never heard of this, i'll give you a quick rundown:

mentos + coke = "PPPSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!"

don't believe me? watch this...



in our case, we attached the nifty tube thing to the top of the coke bottle so it allowed us to set all the mentos in the tube, pull a toothpick out, and run.

here's a shot of the bottle just after matt pulled the plug..

..and the bottle...

not a bad way to spend the holiday, i say. party on mentos. party on.

oh, and in case you didn't know... i started a photo blog, so go check it out. click here (www.mistymacphoto.blogspot.com). i've also got my website up and running if you'd like to check it out, you can click here (www.mistymacphoto.com) or you can just click one of the links off to the right of the blog.

g'night all.

(oh, and i'd like to apologize for posting this one twice. it's the only way it would show up correctly)

we call them poopies

this week i got a phone call from my friend val asking me to go pickup a stray pup that showed up in her yard... so i did.

i've been through several litters of puppies (which are referred to as "poopies", because.. well, that's what they do).

dixie's been known to get herself knocked up on occasion, so i'm getting to be a pro at taking care of these little boogers. well, i had NO intention of holding onto this little guy.. who i've named "jeffrey".. in fact, i was hoping to get rid of him as quick as humanly possible. but after spending a few days with him, he's really starting to grow on me.


he comes to work with me, and sleeps in my bed... and well, taylor loves him and he likes to romp around with dixie. i'm not at all sure what he's mixed with, but we believe he's a daschund mix.

now i know he's a puppy and all, but MAN can this little guy chew. he chews on everything.. shoes, tables, couches, computer bags, rugs, carpet, towels, cords, EARS (yes i said ears.. and it freaking hurts too)... and this morning i woke up to him tugging on my comforter.

well, tonight i was working on my computer only to look down and see this....



the poop was chewing ON MY MAC..... i guess maybe he thought it was a big flat piece of chicken..

i can't be mad at him though.. he's just too darn cute.


oh, and last week i went in to dodge get my oil changed... and i got a dodge magnum instead.
so, yeah.. i changed my oil alright....






and this was just after learning of will ferrell's SNL skit with the phrase "i drive a dodge stratus!!"
if you've never seen it,... please... watch it. it's freaking hillarious (especially for those of us who USED TO drive a dodge stratus... that's right... "used to")... "i hate you, you big fat turd".. ha.. so funny.


oh, right.. and all the "herse" and "station wagon" comments about the magnum don't phase me. i love my car and it stores ALOT of junk. alot. i've waited a LONG time for this and it rocks.

alright.. bedtime for misty
g'night all.

crabs and squeeze cheese

spent most of today learning how to edit web pages (great big ol' thanks to matt for helping me learn this junk). it's pretty interesting stuff (according to me). so, if you get a minute, go check out www.voiceofthewetlands.com and visit the VOW fest area and let me know what you think of my header (banner thing at the top)... and check out the rest of the site while you're there. i'll be updating it quite a bit in the next two months, so keep checking back.

oh, and clear your schedules for the weekend of october 12-14... that's the voice of the wetlands festival. and you'll be spending that weekend of your life at southdown plantation.. with me :)

yesterday we spent the day out on island rd. near pointe-aux-chenes ("pawn-a cha'n" for you non-louisiana folk. you actually don't say the "n" at the end, but that's the only way i could write it so you would say the "a" part right). we didn't do so hot in the "look how many crabs we caught" department. we ended up with 21 crabs, but it wasn't nearly enough to feed everyone. but like i said... heck, it was plenty enough for the four people who caught them. (that's right dad... i'm not counting you. what with your videotaping and sitting on your hiney and all). i actually like crabbing a whole lot more than i like fishing.... i'm a little impatient, and throwing 20 lines out and checking one every minute and a half or so is ALOT better than waiting with just the one line for a fish. plus i had chee-tos. so that rocked.

here's some photos of each of us and our first crabs of the day:

me


brandi


taylor (notice dad in the back)


val




and here's brandi and val recovering from almost losing a crab





me and taylor (the heat was making us a tad delerious)





taylor learned an important lesson on this trip: crabs think fingers taste like chicken




if you'd like to see more of these photos, check out my myspace page.

and i believe a little congratulations is in order for mr. matt stamey.. or stampley.. depending on your preference, i guess. he had his gallery opening of his photos from hurricane katrina at the waterlife museum on friday night. (to be said like the french guy in monty python) it was verry niice. they even had squeeze cheese.... see:



so i'm changing that phrase from "it ain't over 'till the fat lady sings" to.. "it ain't over 'till the squeeze cheese is gone"

here's a few more photos from his gallery opening (p.s. the gallery will be up for a few weeks, so stop by sometime)












the gallery has photos of his "faces of katrina" project which is portraits of evacuees who ended up in houma, as well as photos from the katrina evacuation and damage from the storm. so, congrats to matt on his gallery...

and to me for getting dvr (well, technically it won't be until tomorrow, but still... congrats are in order, i think).