Cold Spaghetti

– Three-year old temperament and tests.
– Wrangling Kate, the non-stop walking, into everything, smart, quick, and cute maniac.
– Getting Paul’s work *laptop* functioning… so that he can join me to work from Oak Street or Rue. That’s right, we’ll be able to work through Wi-Fi together out in the ambiance and atmosphere… once the darn machine is cooperating.
– Determining what to do about school for Will next year… and realizing that our options are dried up because we’ve waited too long.
– The flat tire and brake replacement on the car… and having to go to Mobile to get it fixed
– Wanting to do a hundred things (start on the back of the house renovation, upgrade to a bigger vehicle with latch, have a vacation, explore more of our local gems) but feeling overwhelmed.
– Needing appointments for a thousand services we’ve been neglecting for years (from dental to allergy to general and beyond) but unsure of who or where to go.
– Getting Kate to sleep.

In this city, St. Patrick’s is serious business. Two weeks of parties, parades, music, and food — everything accented with Guinness and Green.
We missed last week’s parades and events. This weekend, we attended the main parade, which runs through the Irish Channel neighborhood. It goes down Louisiana to Magazine Street, right past the home of friends Denice and David — who hosted us (and others of the Abeona clan) for a parade party.
It was standard New Orleans… big floats, great bands, food, families, and fun. It is much like Mardi Gras (even with many of the same floats and throws) except much more green. And much more alcohol. And PRODUCE.
St. Pat’s signature throws are PRODUCE. Specifically, cabbages. You have to be careful (particularly with kids) because those things pack a wallop. Along with cabbages, other garden-inspired throws include potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and even cucumbers (thrown suggestively to Katrina of La Divina with slow air kisses from a young stud on the float).
To round out our diets, the riders also threw packaged baby carrots, moon pies, and goldfish crackers, which we munched while watching the parades. We took home the Ramen noodles and had several of the packages for dinner that night (really).
Looking up Louisiana at the line of floats.
Corner of Louisiana and Magazine. Magazine was wild with fun and excitement as the crowd reached Parasol‘s.
We had to be careful with Will and the MoonPies — he wanted to eat everyone he caught!
Irish undies, anyone?
I have no idea what this was about.
These are extra tires that get pulled in case of a flat. This is the first time we’ve seen riders passed out drinking in them.
There were many (out of order) floats for Skip’s Wild Irish Clan. Apparently, my kid brother gets around?
Paul bonds with his St. Baldrick’s buddy, who we found out is friends with Denice and David, too.
Paul and Kate.
More floats on Louisiana. The conversation among riders and walkers was consistently about going to the bathroom. The parade is extremely slow — mostly because people stop to use the restroom in friends’ homes along the route.
Parents hang out while floats wait to roll.
Riders pass goodies to onlookers… see any veggies?
The guy on the left is about to toss me a potato.
See the guy on the left tossing a carrot?
I made a veggie dish with everything Sunday night. We gave our neighbor the cabbage. She said she’s going to make a dish with it and then bring it over to show us how to do it.
Some more of our St. Patty’s loot. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

To Will and Kate fans (ie: grandparents): many recent albums are up and available!

Thanks to the generous support of family and friends, Paul raised over $800 (when cash donations were totaled, I think it was around $860?) in ONE DAY for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. So either Paul has a lot of supportive family and friends, or a lot of people who were willing to pay to see his bald head. Thank you!Paul’s nervous laugh as things got started…
Nothing fancy! Others went down to mohawk first… unfortunately, Paul was a little nervous and camera-shy and didn’t realize he had the option!
Fellow shaver (who we ended up hanging out with at the St. Patrick’s parties the next day) hammed it up for cameras and audience.
Paul’s pink and blonde hair floated by in the breeze…
All done!
Will couldn’t keep his hands off Paul’s head — “it’s scratchy,” “it’s really short,” and “it’s shaved” were among Will’s responses. Later that night, he would also ask Paul “Daddy, why’d you shave your head?”
Paul holds a lock of his hair. We saved it. I have no idea why.
Local muse Chris Rose, who came across as much more insecure and gruff in person than I would have thought, gets shaved. He was funny (expected, as he’s writes with wonderful humor), a bit socially awkward, clearly nervous, and had a bit of a rough edge that seemed more a result of his awkwardness and nerves than anything. I wanted to get a picture of him and Paul together, but he ran off quickly after his shaving so we missed the opportunity.
But we DID take pictures with fellow shavee Ecoee, whose son Jude and partner Melody are friends from Music Together and future Abeona parents. Jude is the same age as Kate and weighs 26+ pounds… almost 10 pounds more than Kate!
Many Abeona kids came with their parents. It didn’t take long for the kids to find the one puddle in the lot to splash in!
Will went crazy in the puddle for a good half hour.
With many friends! It was a good distraction (along with hot dogs and ice cream) for the kids while parents talked and met with other community members, businesses, and Oak Street vendors. It was also a great opportunity for the Abeona community to meet more people in our neighborhood.
With all of the stomping and commotion, it was just a matter of time until…
…Will fell in the mud. It is telling that Will was the ONLY one to fall.
The mud didn’t stop him. He continued to jump and found a balloon to get stuck in.
By the time we were ready to leave, he was so muddy and wet that we had to strip him down to his undies. He wore Paul’s t-shirt (a lagniappe from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation) to enjoy two hot dogs before heading home.

How many degrees are you?

This excellent post highlights the history of natural disasters and floods throughout our country and how we all, to one degree or another, live with the risk of disruption due to natural events.

After our flat tire Thursday night, we went to dinner at Mona’s around the corner (too late to cook) and were so impressed with how well Will ate grilled vegetables and chicken with basmati rice and feta (and drank our Lebanese tea) that we agreed to his suggestion of visiting La Divina.
I had the camera with me and decided to practice night-time shots and after getting an okay from the staff working the store, had fun taking artsy-fartsy pictures of cones, panini, and gelato. Paul’s pink hair made it a little extra fun. (Can you spot him in the picture above?)I was happily snapping away when a man approached and asked if I was planning on opening a gelateria. Paul and I laughed and explained how we knew the family and the man introduced himself as their web designer, Gary Reggio. We had a great time talking to him and he asked me to take pictures of a variety of things for the website. It was FUN. What (if anything) gets used remains to be seen, but I would love the opportunity to re-shoot in daylight. Another New Orleans moment.

More news later, but here is the picture you’ve been waiting for…Happy St. Baldrick’s Day!

A STICK to the New Orleans’ Waste Management division/Office of the Mayor for the RIDICULOUS trash system we now have. We have all been issued HUGE trash cans that are suppose to facilitate automatic lifting. Has the person who made that decision ever been to New Orleans? Seen pictures? Even thought about what a 100-year old neighborhood might look like?
Show me a New Orleans neighborhood where every home can get a GIGANTIC trash bin into a side alley or back yard and has the street space for 5 foot of clearance on either side for trash day — show me this and I’ll show you monkeys flying out of my butt. Seriously, people! As if! The result: trash cans on the sidewalks and in front of people’s homes. Oh, and if that unsecured trash can gets lost — it’s a $75 fee to the homeowner. STICK STICK STICK!

And a BIG FAT CARROT to me for forgoing the antibiotic for Kate’s last ear infection! She had a stellar check-up today — two healthy, good-looking ears! Hooray for wait-and-see and hooray for me for having the gall to do it! CARROT!

Step One: Bleach Hair.
Scare neighbors.
Make calls. See who can guess your hair color.
Step Two: Decide to make it more interesting. (We couldn’t find green and settled for pink because I liked it.)
(Extra bonus: your wife decides to show support by tinting hair, too.*)
Scare neighbors again.
Attend Board Meeting for kids’ school.
Visit with lots of friends and neighbors. Go to the store for wife.
Just to make sure enough people have noticed, arrange to have a flat tire away from home.
Have you ever seen a man with pink hair changing a tire?
Then go out to dinner and gelato. That’s a lot of hair to loose tomorrow!
* I used “light red” henna. Rinsed way too soon out of concern for us being late for the Board meeting. No real red look… unless you have really good eyes and know what to look for…

Email from Emmy, Abeona’s Director…

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