Yes, hell has frozen over, pigs have flown, the SAINTS ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL!!

We’ve waited 43+ years for the Glory of being at the Big Dance. After Katrina, we nearly made it but got shut out in the playoffs. This season is one to remember, not just because we made it, but because we did it our way.

The Saints won 13-3 in the regular season. They won home field advantage and won both playoff games against the Cardinals (Sorry to hear you’re retiring Warner) and the Packers (Sorry to hear you’re retiring Favre).  The Super Dome is an amazing venue and I can’t imagine the Saints playing anywhere else.

This season has brought our city together in a way that I believe we are finally ready for. Yes, Katrina kicked our butts, and it would have been awesome to go to the Superbowl in 2006. In my heart, I think this is “Our Time”  We’re finally ready.

There is so much LOVE in our city right now. As I always have been, I’m proud to call New Orleans home.

Ok, enough of the sentimental stuff. I’m SO EXCITED, I can hardly wait for Sunday!! I wish I was in Miami with all the Who-Dat Nation

Lots of awesome bits are flying around the Interwebs celebrating the Saints March to Victory.  Some of my favorites are as follows:

Dear Miami Thank you, CajunVegan for pointing this one out to me.

The New Orleans Saints Super bowl Drinking Game

1. Every time they mention hurricane Katrina, drink 1
2. If they show pictures of the City of New Orleans right after Katrina, drink 1
3. Every time they say how much the Saints mean to the City of New Orleans, drink 1
4. Every time the words “tragedy”, “flood”, or “devastation” are used, drink 1
5. Every time they talk about how good Reggie Bush was in college, drink 3

6. If they show Kim Kardashian in the stands, drink 5
7. Every time they show a picture of Reggie Bush with a bat or say “bringing the wood” drink for 5 seconds
8. Every time Reggie Bush gets negative yardage trying to run around in the backfield a bunch and outrun the defense, drink 1 and turn to the person next to you and say “I told you Vince Young should have won the Heisman”
9. Every time Reggie Bush gets up and flexes his arms in that pose he likes to do, drink 1
10. If they mention Tim Tebow for any reason, funnel a beer (LOL!)

11. Every time they say that “it’s destiny for the Saints to win” drink 1
12. If they show footage of Katrina survivors at the Superdome, take a shot of cheap liquor
13. If they call Saints fans the most passionate fans in football, drink 1
14. If they say that the Saints, Saints fans, or the City of New Orleans “deserve” a Super bowl victory, drink 1
15. Every time they say how good of a story the Saints are, drink 1

16. If Jeremy Shockey pretends to be hurt after dropping a pass, drink 2
17. If they mention the Saints beating the Falcons in 2006 in the first game after Katrina in the Superdome, drink 5 and remember that we are still a better football team with better fans.
18. Every time they compare hurricane Katrina to the Haiti earthquake, funnel a beer and yell “bullshit!”
19. Every time they mention Drew Brees as the Mardi Gras king, drink
20. Every time they show Archie Manning, drink 1, and mention how bad he sucked. If they show old footage of him on the Saints, drink 5. If they mention how tough of a decision it was for him as for whom to cheer for, drink 10.

21. Every time they show a saints fan yelling “Who Dat!” Or a sign/shirt saying the same, drink 1.
22. If they show Chris Paul at the game, drink 1 and mention to someone how much better he is than Marvin Williams.
23. If they show former Mayor Ray Nagin, drink 5 and then punch someone in the face!

Other Rules not involving the Saints:
1. Every time they show Eli Manning in the press box, drink 1
2. Every time Pierre Garcon is mentioned with Haiti, drink 1
3. If Brett Favre is mentioned for any reason, drink 1

Saints Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to The Saints, and to the great city of New Orleans; and to The Super Bowl, for which we will win; One city, below sea level, under God; with Mardi Gras & alcohol for all!

And some of my VERY FAVORITE WHO-DATS who posted Saint’s blogs!!

Ashton Check out his Facebook Group, if you already haven’t What it means to be a Saints Fan

Cajunvegan (Awesome!!)

Perpstu (Hope you’re feeling better soon!)

Rupe (Paging Dr. Suess)

And a BIG SHOUTOUT to my Fantasy Footballers!!  Whooot!!!  I love y’all!!

Today’s the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina. And four years ago today, I was driving on a hot Interstate somewhere in between Houston and San Antonio, disconnected from the news and hoping that landfall had left my home standing.

Four years ago today, I was checking into a hotel in San Antonio with my husband, son, 2 dogs and 2 cats. The news that night was kind to New Orleans, we even saw the guy from La Madeline’s delivering pastries in the Quarter so they wouldn’t go bad. No electricity, but no flooding either. Yet.

We couldn’t get any news about our town North of New Orleans, and that worried me. But eventually my husband got in touch with the Parish President and he said things were bad, not as bad as New Orleans, but under control.

Four years ago today, I didn’t know if my house was standing. I didn’t know if my father-in-law was alive (he stayed). I didn’t know if my neighbors were ok, many of whom stayed.

Four years ago today, I couldn’t call anyone on my cell phone, even my husband who was sitting across the hotel room from me on the opposite bed.

Four years ago today, I went to bed thinking Katrina might not have been that bad.

Sounds almost lewd, doesn’t it.

Ok, so I’m trying to get back into blogging and I’m totally stealing the Lefthander’s day to help me out.

As a Southpaw, and let’s be honest, I’m also ambidextrous….cuz who doesn’t like to throw that big word around…things are not always unawkward.

Lefties get a bad-rep. I really don’t care. I finally found a refrigerator that opens to the left. (Sub-zero, you are my friend) I totally have blown off ironing and I practically own stock in Fiskars because they rock the left-handed scissors for real.

At times, I’ve blamed my left-handedness for things I didn’t want to do. It comes in handy with the ironing. That cord and board always screw with me.

Learning to feed my son, when he was an infant, was probably the most awkward thing I’ve done. And try teaching a right-handed kid how to tie their shoes. Oh forget it.

I grew up just after the whole “you must be switched” if you are left-handed. Both my parents were switched. They encouraged me to stick with the lefty thing. Tennis was fun as a kid, cuz my backhand was my front hand, until my instructor caught me changing hands. That’s a no-no….but it was working.

Nowadays, there are stores just for lefties…And I think that’s just a huge gimmick. Just like International Lefty day. But hey, I’m lefty, so let’s celebrate. (start throwing confetti, I’ll get the champagne!)

So lucky ambidextrous chick that I am, I have learned to play tennis the right way….I golf right handed because it’s just insane not to…and I can even take legible notes with my right hand…because after all, my left hand gets tired…and needs its beauty rest.

I read somewhere that lefties are more inclined to be technological. So if that’s true, they why is it so hard to find a left-handed mouse. Oh sure, I can order a specialty one, but I can’t walk into Lest Buy and pick one up. Just sayin’ I mouse left.

I’ve been tagged by the lovely and wonderful Perptacular for this Photo tag!! It’s fun, and I got to see my photo in a different light because of it.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your picture files
2. Go to your 6th folder.
3. Go to your 6th picture.
4. Tell us about it.
5. Tag 6 friends to do the same.

Hawt Hallapeno Happiness:

Jalapeno Cows on Parade

I took this photo in Boston the summer of 2006. My son and I took an end of summer jaunt to visit my cousin who recently graduated from Johnson and Wales cooking school. Our trip was full of surprises. We left NoLA on the “morning “ the FAA implemented the lovely “No Liquids Rule” That made for fun traveling with an almost kindergartener. Oh yeah, they confiscated a bunch of stuff. TSA was all in a fit. I apparently tried to smuggle a Diet Coke thru security. Then due to the craziness of the Liquids scare, our suitcases never made it to Boston. Oh joy of joys, being on a plane all day, nearly missing our connecting flight at JFK and having *NO* food for my lil one, just to make it to our destination and not have a change of clothes or pj’s. Yep, those TSA bleeps never traveled with kids, I am sure of it, or they’d never had made that awful terrible rule. So we spent several hours waiting for luggage to arrive in Boston. While we waited, we made the best of our adventure and my cousin took us to tour downtown Boston, ate at Legal Seafoods (Yummm!) in the Prudential building (gorgeous) and afterwards strolled up and down the historic streets of Newbury and had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. This photo was taken that evening. I have been a huge fan of Cows on Parade since I saw them in Chicago back in 1999. I first saw them on Michigan avenue and thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Dog Cow positioned outside Neiman Marcus on the Magnificent Mile. So it was a real treat and a surprise to see them in Boston. Had our travels gone as planned, we might not have gotten to enjoy them. I believe this Jalapeno Pepper Cow was located right outside Niketown. Good memories, Thanks again, to Perptacular, for giving me the reason to look back on them.

Oh and I happened to find this pic from my first Cows on Parade:

Blue Dog Cow - Chicago 1999 Cows on Parade

ps. Our luggage didn’t arrive for two days. Two days! Since our trip was only 4 days long initially, we decided to extend it and shopped til we dropped.

So onto the tagging business:

I’d love to see what the other photography nuts out there have to share, I don’t want to double tag anyone, so if you haven’t already done this, consider yourself tagged.

1. Drinking buddy of the year
Cindy and Lesli

2. Lifetime Service Award (longest friend)
Tammy

3. Newcomer Award (newest friend)
All my new plurk friends!  I love you all!

4.  High Point of the Year
Seeing Tammy at Thanksgiving.

5.  Low Point of the Year
Learning that my BFF Tammy has breast cancer.

6.  Best Holiday
Christmas.

7.  Your Song for the Year
Well, thanks to iTunes and its ‘most played’ feature, Party Like A Rockstar by the Shop Boyz, tho I don’t remember listening to it that much.

8. Movie of the Year
I’m not much of a movie-buff, but movies I saw and liked, War Inc. great flick..John Cusack, Sex and the City, yeah, I know.  Shut up.  And Righteous Kill.  Have yet to see the new Bond movie, and Indiana Jones.

9. Most Memorable Moment of the Year
There were many memorable moments, but I’d have to say it’s a close 3-way tie between taking my guys to see my hometown for the first time, our Snow Day in December and having front.row.center.seats at Eddie Izzard’s show, Stripped, for our anniversary vacay.  Oh and seeing my son’s face the first time he looked through his new telescope, being able to share my love for the stars with him is one of the highlights of my life.

10. Best Laugh of the Year
At the moment I can’t recall a specific laugh event, although the holidays this year were filled with much joy and happiness, more so than the previous years and for that I am really grateful.

11.  Whom did you spend Valentines with?
My lover ~ my friend ~  my husband and my Aunt who’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day and my son.  We got to spend my Aunt’s birthday with her shortly after she lost her sister.  It was truly special to be with her this year.  Alex gave her a stuffed animal named “Valentine” and we ate at this wonderful restaurant, Black Woods and had the best table in the house with a breathtaking view of Lake Superior.

12.  Best Relationship
The one with my husband and my son.  We have a beautiful family and I’m so grateful for it everyday.

13.  What were you for Halloween?
A stockbroker for Bear Sterns, hubby was a werewolf and firstbourne was Jango Fett.

14. Restaurant of the Year
Mr. D and I thoroughly enjoyed our date nights on CCD nights at Coffee’s Boiling Pot.  Delicious seafood and the best crab claws in the South.  And nice big glasses of vino.  Mmm.

15. Book of the Year
World Without End, Ken Follett

16.  Best Decision Made This Year
Mr. D quitting smoking (even tho I had no idea he decided to it, I’m so grateful he did it and it’s been such a good thing for our family)

17.  What are your plans for next year?
Travel, school and hopefully lots fun and good times.

18. TV Show of the Year
That’s a three-way tie between Burn Notice, Californication and Entourage

19. Most Loyal Friends
You know who you are, and I’m truly blessed to have you in my life.

20. Biggest Change of the Year
Second Grade has been a change for us, as we’ve not been blessed with the magic we have been so lucky to have had in prior years.  Also, painting the spare bedroom was huge change/challenge for many reasons, which I won’t go into here and now.

[Apparently I didn’t publish this post when I wrote it before Christmas, so it’s a little out of order. Oops!]

The year’s big shopping day for firstbourne actually included, you guessed it…firstbourne. As we drove across the lake, I kept thinking to myself, ‘I am so screwed, I am so freakin’ screwed. “How am I gonna shop for a 7 year old while he’s with me?” The words -EPIC FAIL- flashed like a neon sign in my brain.

About half way across the 26 mile bridge separating me from the mall, firstbourne curls up with his pillow and says, “I’m just gonna rest for a bit.” Now don’t get too excited, because this child NEVER sleeps in the car anymore. Hardly never, ever, ever. So I thought nothing of it.

Minutes later, we hear the soft rhythmic breathing of a…drum roll….sleeping seven year old. OMG! It was 6:30pm. What the… My first thought was, oh no, he’s sick. Seriously, he doesn’t sleep in the car. We were completely caught off-guard.

We arrived at the Toy’s R’ Us. Boy still asleep. So we took turns shopping. We both figured we could knock out the “toy store” before he woke up. He sat up at one point, said something and flopped back down in his pillows. thatwasclose. Whew. We did it.

Off to the mall. At this point, we figured if he slept anymore, he wouldn’t sleep that night, so we tried to wake him. (This goes against parenting policy rule #1…You wake ’em, you take ’em. But at some point, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.) And we tried to wake him. No.such.luck. The boy was out. So off I went, into the mall, alone, to conquer and purchase.

I returned after I could no longer carry the shopping bags in my arms to a still-sleeping boy. Now, I’m getting a little concerned. It’s around 9:30pm. I’m hungry and tired. And I’d like to go sit down somewhere and enjoy some PF Changs dinner. Let’s just cut to the chase, it didn’t happen. We drove around and finally happened upon a Popeye’s chicken so we got a “little snack.”

Then it occurred to us that the Copeland’s light display was up and not too far away from where we were. Seeing as how it’s the last year they’ll be doing it, we definately wanted to go. (R.I.P. AC) So off, in pursuit of gawdy bawdy light displays, we headed to Transcontinental Drive.

Christmas from the Copelands

35 years of lights

Ginormous Tree

Coffee and Beignets

Sleeping Beauty

Morning Call and Lakeside News

As we waited in the extremely long line of traffic, I happened upon a delightfully unsecured internet connection, bliss at last. Seriously, I need help. Firstbourne is still zonked out. And yes, we still tried to wake him, to no avail.

Sleeping Beauty

At some point, the Mister and I decided if firstbourne was going to sleep the whole time, we were getting a free quasi-date night so we made the most of it. We really wished he had been awake to enjoy our adventures, but it was a blessing in two ways. a) Shopping turned out NOT to be the epic fail I thought it would be. b) we got a little quality time together over the holidays that we don’t usually get.

Coffee and Beignets

We stopped at Red Lobster and got take out. Yep, we still couldn’t wake the boy. Since it was such a beautifully warm night, we headed to Morning Call and enjoyed some cafe au lait and beignets to finish off our evening.

Morning Call and Lakeside News

By the time we got home, it was after 1am and as my hubby was carrying a sleeping boy up to his bed, he stirred again. Then he jolted awake and proclaimed, “Mom, I slept for an hour” (Shhhh, we’ll never tell. He got 6 wonderful hours of sleepus uninterruptus and fell back asleep shortly thereafter. Again, another close call, he could have been awake all night.)

How’s your Mama ‘n dem? If you’re from New Orleans, you know that’s a greeting that will be heard hundreds of times over the holidays.

I’m finally getting around to posting this fun little holiday meme. The holidays, this year have been a little frazzled, but we’re in the final countdown of Operation Santa Claus and I thought I’d take a moment to share some of our fun traditions.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both depending on the gift. I love to wrap presents for firstbourne because it is so much fun to watch him tear thru them. A living room full of wrapping paper is one of my fondest memories as a child.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Both. We purchased an artificial a few years back and they are so easy. Christmas plug and play. But firstbourne usually wants a real tree, so one of our traditions is going to the same Christmas tree farm and cutting down a Louisiana Leyland cypress. It’s a fun time, usually involves a hayride, except for this year, our tree got brought in on a golf cart. It was a hoot. All of us and a 10ft tree on a golf cart was quite a sight!

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually the first or second week of December

4. When do you take the tree down?
That depends on well we keep the real tree watered. Last year we had to take it down early because it dried out when we were out of town. But otherwise, we like to keep it til after the New Year.

5. Do you like egg nog? Nope, but Ashton loves it

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My first stereo (the one with a turn table and a 8 track player..lol) and my first computer, of course.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, one my mom handmade for my grandmother that got handed down back to me. Each piece is engraved with her name and the date it was made.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
n/a I love to shop

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Alex

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Again both

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

Because I can’t stand to dwell on the negative, I’m passing on this question and replacing it with my own:

Best birthday/Christmas present ever? For my 16^th birthday, my mom gave me a Neiman Marcus credit card with a monthly spending limit!! My Mom always made my birthday special, no matter what.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I don’t really have one. Tho I do enjoy the annual Christmas specials like Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Charlie Brown’s Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I see something that would make a good Christmas gift.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Christmas cookies and assorted baked goodies like banana nut bread. I love my Holiday Peppermint mochas from Starbucks!!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Again, depends on real or fake tree. The fake one has tons of clear ones already on it. But with the real tree, I love the glow of multi-colored mini lights with a string of the big old-fashioned blinking lights.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Such a Night, by either Elvis or Aaron Neville and Hark the Herald Angels Sing

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Usually at home. We try to see my family every other year at the holidays, occasionally drive cross country to see family. Tis always fun when we hit the snowline in the midsection of the great USA.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?
Almost , probably, um…no.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
A star that Firstbourne and I found together in 2007. He plans to put it atop on Christmas and make that our new tradition this year.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas Eve. Santa always came after Christmas mass and dinner. Christmas morning was reserved for my birthday, short n simple, my mom always gave me my gift in the morning and then the rest of the day was Christmas. Now we open them Christmas morning, for firstbourne.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
People telling me that I must hate having my birthday on Christmas. I have always felt so honored to share my birthday with the most special day of the year. Just don’t wrap my birthday presents in Christmas paper. Kthxbai.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
On the real tree, We put up ornaments that we’ve collected over the years. On the fake tree, we have a magnolia/southern theme with peach and mint green ornaments. We also started collecting birds last year so I have some cardinals and white birds this year.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Sautéed Chicken breasts and wild rice served with sour cream sauce and peas…Christmas eve dinner tradition. Every.year.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Peace and diamonds. What…I’m a girl.