Tired on Fat Tuesday

It's been quite a week, guys. I've had hilarious fun and seen some awful destruction. I'll have pictures for you, probably by the weekend. Except for one shrimp po-boy and some sushi, I photographed everything I ate at Mardi Gras, from the homemade jambalaya to the parade-route corn dog. I'm giving up cigarettes for Lent, and I drank a couple of extra bloody marys for good measure.

I am happy that I still have a home in New Orleans.

Talk to you more soon.

Mardi Gras bound

Sorry I've been so lax about posting this week. I've had a lot of fun during the past few days (Happy Birthday, Mary! and Nice to meet you, Chris!) but now I don't have time to catch up with everyone.

My plane leaves at 9 a.m. for New Orleans. I'm not sure what to expect from my post-Katrina city. I know a lot of my old friends will be in town for the weekend, and I've packed a hot-pink boa for emergency use. But I'm a little nervous to see how New Orleans is faring after its mass evacuation.

For you, dear readers, I plan to photograph all the foods I eat while I'm in the Crescent City. (If I don't lose my camera in the crush of revelry, I'll tell my story in pictures.)

Until Ash Wednesday,

eb

Blizzard '06

Well, this pretty much means that Brooklyn will only get a half-inch of snow, but I'm going to attempt to semi-live blog about today's snow storm. (Semi-live because I feel a nap coming on.) Here goes nothing...

4:20 p.m. It just started with the flurries, but they seem to be melting as they land on my fire escape. Riveting, no?

Pumba is taking a very long, determined bath on the couch, and I am jealous of his flexibility.

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5:35 p.m. Breaking news on the Blizzard of 2006, folks! It's getting dark.

I'll keep you posted as events unfold. (Well, for a while anyway. My friend Kevin just called to tell me that blizzard-or-no, he'll be having his big party tonight in Washington Heights. So I'm going to brave the wet sidewalks and flurries to raise a glass with him at some point tonight. Sorry, I suck at this up-to-the-minute reporting.)

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7:13 p.m. I just got back from the store, and I can now confirm that it is in fact snowing. It's not sticking on the sidewalk yet, but stuff is coming down steady now.

For my part, I have no idea how real live bloggers find interesting stuff to talk about on these sorts of reports. I completely understand why I'm in the weekly reporting business now. Anyway, I'm off to make some bloody mary mix and mash a potato. More details to come...

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8:20 p.m. Here's one last update before I head waaaaaay uptown for a pre-blizzard party. And the news is.... it's snowing a little. Hopefully the situation will hold while I go toast Kevin's first NYC house party. Roi's coming with me, so I'm sure much mayhem will ensue.

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3:15 a.m. Party's over. Roi and I went to the Diner 24 in Chelsea and John joined us after he got off work. We watched the snow blow into town while we ate excellent French toast and just-okay Macaroni and Cheese. Here's the fire escape picture.

That's enough minute-by-minute reporting. The snow is coming down. See y'all in the morning.

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9:25 a.m. My blogging about the storm did nothing to ward off the winter. By golly, we've got ourselves a real storm going.

I'll share pictures from the party when I get out of bed for real.

Chinese New Year

A lotus dance?
Originally uploaded by typingelbow.

John and I took his parents to Chinatown when they were in town last weekend. It was fun watching John's mom pop her first big confetti firecracker gun thing (what are those things called?)

Watching the parade revelers made me think of Mardi Gras (I leave in about a week!!), and I rung in my first Chinese New Year celebration with the year of the dog.

snowlies

There's a blizzard coming tonight, so John and I are running out to the store to buy food to cook tomorrow. Three cheers for being snowed in with a chef!!

Also, three big cheers to my sister, Mary B., for kicking the GRE's ass!

And four cheers for my dad for passing his own test. I am so proud of you, Pop!

Photos from home

I just found my friend BILLLLLLL!!'s Web site! He's a marvelous photographer, and he included on his site my very favorite shot of his (the Mardi Gras Indian at the right.)

Bill can talk about camera lenses for eight hours straight, as long as there's enough Guinness at hand, and he buys new cameras just to see how they frame shots he knows by heart. Feel free to check out his site here.

I love looking at his photos because BILLLLLL!! loves the same parts of the country as me, namely the Dirty South and New Orleans.

Yes. I am cruel

I bought a cute magnet, shown as a poster here, to put on my refrigerator. It's called Love is Colorblind, and I thought it would be funny to see what John said about it since his reds and greens all seem to look pink. Well, he was with me when the package came, so I gave it to him. Now, this is proof that I'm a cold-hearted BIOTECH who will surely bear children that will suffer my bad karma, but I just fell on the floor laughing when he stared at it and couldn't see the heart. I kept screaming that Love is Blind!!!, and I just got a case of the giggles that almost killed me.

So I figured that when John asked me to take a picture of my refrigerator, he was planning to joke about either the magnet or my habitual need to cover white space with nostalgic, dusty mementos. The expected blog came this morning, and yes, he was ready to poke some fun at me for laughing at the colorblind. But OMG!!! He posted a link to a colorblind magnet on cafepress.com, and SO HELP ME, HE PICKED THE WRONG MAGNET! And he can't see it to know that it says "18" instead of a heart. See for yourself at John's blog. I am gathering bad karma with a bulldozer right now... I just can't stop laughing about this.

Help me. I love this wonderful colorblind man.

Me as South Park eb

Brandi Rooney made this portrait for me. I think it bears a striking resemblance, complete with the iPod.