Summer Turns to Fall

I had a great summer, but found more jobs to do. I'm now the Grand Knight of my Knights of Columbus Council. I also am the Treasurer of the local Chamber of Commerce, and the first thing I did was figure out our director stole a bunch of money (we have since gotten it back). I am also now on the Finance Council for the Diocese of Shreveport.

I also went on a few trips this summer. I went to Nick and Emily's excellent wedding in Breaux Bridge. I went tubing down the Guadulupe River with Tammy, Reed, and Jamie. On Labor Day we celebrated Granny's 90th birthday with all of my dad's family. On the weekends I was in Sabine Parish I spent more time on Toledo Bend than I ever have. And work was busy with Lonnie retiring and a big project.

Now it's the first cool week of fall. Football is in full swing. Mom and Dad came up this weekend and brought JP. We watched the LSU-Tennessee debacle and chased JP around. Three year old JP is a ton of fun. I hope his brother arrives safely this week.

Snow in Many

The second week of any month is pretty busy for me. I have regular meetings on Tuesday evening and Wednesday at noon. It's usually not a big deal, but looking at the schedule always reminds me that I have stuff to do.

I didn't have to work Monday, but I had a meeting of the Many Complete Count Committee. Not many people showed up, but we persevere in our mission to make people aware of how important the 2010 Census is to Many and Sabine Parish.

On the second Tuesday of every month we have our council's Knights of Columbus meeting. This month we didn't have enough for a quorum, but we had some delicious gumbo and some good fellowship. We also had a good laugh at my expense. I'll explain. After a couple bites of gumbo, I noticed a bottle of hot stuff at the other end of the table. I walked over, picked it up, and put three drops in my large bowl of gumbo. Now, I had noticed that the name of this particular hot sauce was "Spontaneous Combustion." But I assumed it was marketing gimmickry. It was not. As I drank more coke and the beads of sweat starting forming on my head, I realized that this hot sauce was not fit for human consumption. But I ate the whole bowl. And I got laughed at. By everyone. The other consequence was that two glasses of Coca Cola at 7 pm meant a late night and dream-filled sleep when I finally got to bed.

On Wednesday at noon I had our monthly Sabine Parish Chamber of Commerce Board meeting. The Honorable John Kennedy, the Treasurer of the State of Louisiana, spoke about his ideas for balancing the state budget. He talked a lot. Wednesday evening I went and played cards at Wayne and Tina's. I won a little money, but had to leave after the first game to fill in for Deacon Mike at Eucharistic Adoration from 9 pm to 10 pm. I hadn't been to adoration in a while, and I had forgotten why I like it so much. Perhaps during Lent I will make it a regular part of my prayer life.

On Thursday morning it was snowing when I woke up. The forecast was for snow and sleet all day long, so by the time I got to work the boss told my co-workers to head home. Lonnie lives in Lafayette, and Pat about half an hour away, and the road conditions were going to deteriorate all day. I live two blocks away, so I manned the office. There wasn't much going on. I stayed home Thursday night for the first time in a while and caught up on my DVR'd shows. Once it got dark, I noticed the sleet was beginning to accumulate on my porch. I kept checking all night as the sleet turned to snow, and by two in the morning when I went to bed there was a significant amount of snow on the ground. I finally decided to go to bed, but woke up at 7:30 am without the aid of an alarm to find at least three inches of snow on the ground. It was still snowing, so I bundled up and went out to take some pictures and experience the winter wonderland. I snapped the shot above across the street from my house. I made a snowman with Addie, I threw snowballs at Billy Lafitte. The office was closed, and I just played in the snow and rested all day. Friday night I watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Pretty neat show. I wanted to eat something Canadian since the Olympics are in Vancouver, but I couldn't think of any Canadian food except whale blubber. My sister suggested Canadian bacon, so I made a pizza with bellpeppers and goat cheese and fresh tomatoes and Canadian bacon. It was very yummy.

Saturday morning I woke up and cleaned house. I picked stuff up and put things away and reordered book shelves and cleaned and scrubbed and swept. But I was done by noon and at one I left with Tammy and Mac headed to Lake Charles for some casino action. We met Tim and Ruth and Wayne and Tina and Dale down there, which is about two-thirds of a group with who I regularly play poker. I'd never played poker in a casino before, but I really liked it. I played limit Texas hold 'em for about ten hours. I probably lost about $15 all day, but I gave some cash away and drank a lot of the casino's beer. We left the casino at 3:14 am and I was in bed by 5:30 am.

On Sunday I woke up in time for Mass, then planned on coming home for a nap while the Daytona 500 was on. Before I could get to sleep, Buck came by, and I went with him so he could break in his new Polaris. We got it and ourselves muddy, but all the rain and snow made the road impassable so we didn't get very far. We were gonna go out on another trail, but the weather changed and it got too cold to get muddy. We had a good time shooting the breeze the rest of the night with Melvin and Linda and Kelly and Jesse. At ten pm Buck and I decided we were hungry, but everything in town was closed. So we made dinner with what we could scrounge at Buck's house.

Today I had to get up and go open the office so the carpet cleaners could get in. They were done by noon, and I am off until Wednesday morning.

Lastly, here's the picture from the Mardi Gras Ball that I promised last week. Happy Mardi Gras to everyone.

Super Weekend

What an epic weekend! It started with a Sabine Parish Mardi Gras Krewe party Friday night. Rob and I were supposed to be there a little earlier to help decorate, but he got delayed at work, so we missed out on that. Since he lives with Queen Crystal and she has me on speed dial, neither of us felt guilty. Mom and Dad arrived shortly after I did, and they fit right into the party atmosphere. We had some great food and everyone was happy and excited for the ball Saturday night.

Saturday was pretty laid back during the day. We had prepared well enough that the workload was light to nonexistent. By about 2 p.m., the guys were standing around drinking beer and shooting the shit. The women, of course, were in full hair/makeup/dressed mode. We were all ready by 5:30 as instructed by Queen Crystal, except Rob and Randy. We had our pictures made, the guests started arriving, the band started playing, and eventually everyone had a blast. Until about 10 p.m.

I'm not saying the fun stopped then. It's just that as King Ted was announcing the new king, I was worried that it might be me. Then, I was pretty sure it couldn't be me. Until he actually said my name. It was really clever, actually. And, the guilt I had because I knew that Kayla was the new queen was assuaged. Now, she and I are in the same boat. We seem to have a good krewe of folks to work with, everybody had nice things to say about this year's party, and we'll definitely be able to work together. I should also point out that the only people more excited for Kayla and I than Crystal and Ted were my folks. Johnny, dressed as a Cajun Uncle Sam, and Gayle were very, very happy. After he announcement, everything until I finally went to bed was a big blur. There was dancing and talking and hugging and breakfast, but the order of it and the particulars are a wee bit hazy. If I find some pictures of my dad, or my shoes, or my coronation, I'll share them.

Let's see, what else happened? Sunday I tried to recover enough so that I could have a beer or two during the football game. After Mass, Kayla and Larry and I went to Gasaway's for burgers. We're all kinda looking forward to capitalizing on the excitement of this year's party, tweaking a few things, and getting to know the new Krewe members. That last part is really the most fun for me. After unloading my full truck, I rested for a while. I watched the Saints become Super Bowl Champions at Chuck and Linda's. It was great. My favorite reaction came from Debbie Fontenot, who was a member of the original Saints dance team forty-three years ago when she was a baby. She grew up in Chalmette, and has been a big Saints fan since Day One. She was so very happy. Her only regret was that her father died five weeks before he could see his Saints win. But I'd like to think he was up in heaven helping out a little.

The weekend actually continued into today, since I got to work to find an e-mail saying the court was closed today. The judge said go home, and I did. Everyone around here except diehard Cowboys fans is ecstatic, and I'm sure the mood gets better the closer you get to New Orleans.

I'll end this post with the highlight of the week. I got up at 7 a.m. to go clean up the ballroom and pack up all our gear. We decorated pretty lightly, so there wasn't much to do. Me and Diann were the only two up, and had it all packed/thrown away and ready to be loaded up by the time anyone else arrived to help. But she and I actually commented while we were working how easy the job was, and that we were perfectly happy not to have any more help. Anyway, I went to get my truck to start loading stuff up. I took a second to see my folks off, and by the time I got to the ballroom a few more folks were there to help out. While I was discussing the weather or some such with Randy and Rob, a lady comes out with a hadful of glittery stuff that I had thrown in a garbage bag. I told her that we had used the stuff a couple of times and were ready to throw it away. "No you're not," was her reply. "Yes we are," I retorted wittily. Whereupon she opens my truck and begins to stuff this glittery shiny stuff into a bag in my truck. "You can put it in my truck," I explained, "But when I get home I am going to take it out of that bag and put it in the trash." Unhappy with my response and/or my tone, she exclaimed, "ASSHOLE!" I smiled, explained again that we had gotten our money's worth out of the gliterry shiny stuff and she took it away with her.

When I related that story to Diann, who apparently had a similar discussion about the glittery shiny stuff, she christened me King Asshole. I think I like it.

EDIT: Diann wants to clarify that she called me King AH, since she thinks the full word doesn't fit me. I'm not sure everyone agrees with her.

WHO DAT?

It's been over a month, and at this point I am sure no one will ever see this but me. That's okay. I've changed the colors to reflect the fact that the New Orleans Saints are in the Super Bowl.

I have a big fun week this next week. We go to court on Thursday, so I'll spend the first part of the week getting ready for that. But more fun than that, Saturday is the Sabine Parish Mardi Gras Ball. The old people are coming up Friday night, and we should have a blast. I have my fancy clothes and will be ready to boogie all night long.

But Sunday is the main event. Super Bowl Sunday. Saint v. Colts. I've spent the last few minutes watching videos of the Saints first game back at the dome in 2006. The U2-Green Day performance, the crowd super jacked up. At the time we never imagined it could get louder and more exciting in the Superdome. Oh, but we found out in overtime in the NFC Championship game that the New Orleans has improved in the last three years -- the team and the city. I was down there last weekend, and that city is hopping like it hasn't in a while. There's a buzz, a sense of excitement. Mardi Gras has the potential to be the victory parade(s) to end all victory parades.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The Saints Are Coming. The Saints Are Coming.