Happy Valentine's Day all you Men in the Grocery Store!

Valentine's Day is like any other day in New Orleans: People dress up in bright colors and scramble to find weird ingredients or novelty items to celebrate a semi-fictional holiday. Yes, I know Mardi Gras has deep historical and traditional roots, but that's not the reason that anyone celebrates it nowadays.

Valentine's Day happens on the very same day every year and y'all have plenty of television commercials featuring Jane Seymour to remind you. Still, there were no fewer than 20 men in the grocery story at lunchtime buying flowers.  One guy had carnations and one of those giant heart-shaped boxes of candy. And I was extremely jealous. I didn't know anyone actually got those things on Valentine's Day. Gentleman, woman may pretend we're annoyed you bought us cheapo chocolate candy from the supermarket, but in reality I'll take some Russell Stover any day! Bring on the weird pink foam filling!

New Downtown Grocery Store = Fancy

Carnival Season A-GAIN

I've eaten 17 pieces of king cake in three weeks. I found the baby twice. My favorite cake is from PJ's Coffee. The favorite of my office so far is the expensive-a*# one from Il Posto, which is really from La Boulangerie. Hint: It's $6 cheaper if you buy it from La Boulangerie.

Yesterday we took Buddy! to watch the Krewe of Barkus, where he caught a giant stuffed banana. Elbow and I caught some cups, but none of the novelty plastic poo that I really want.

And the little Bud-man was so tired after the parade, he slept from 6 pm to 6 am straight through. Here's a picture of the possessed (it's in the eyes) dog in his too-small turtle costume pre-gaming for the parade:

This party-goer needs a Bloody Mary STAT

 Our friends had a swanky engagement party for us. Here's a picture of the mini-cake. Look, I'm possessed, too:

5 seconds from smashing my face into this cake

This week we have lots more parades and lots more parties. Some of my girlfriends are going as festival queens, but I think my costume this Mardi Gras day is going to be "woman hiding in living room eating cake and watching Emma Stone chick flicks." Elbow is going as "Whatever Woman, I'm going out."

Blog Hiatus

Dear Reader (s???),
I regretfully have to take a break from SamLivesInNola. My blogging time is very limited due to my school, work and volunteer responsibilities and I just can't commit the time to produce the quality material you have come to expect since July 2010.

And every day that I don't write something on here fills me with so much guilt and regret, I can't take it! 

Please stay tuned. I will be back in full force by late spring. Y'inz are gonna need some Mardi Gras pictures, riiight?

Keebler Elves Fashion Show

Last night Elbow and I went to Harvest the Music, a weekly free concert in Lafayette Square Downtown. There was a band with horns and s#*t. Lots of young, up-and-comers drinking Abita in their khakis and Tory Burch ballet flats.

After I ate some cheese grits and pork, we walked down St. Charles Avenue to a new-ish hotel bar where there was a fashion show!!! Except we only saw one model the whole time. And he was dressed like this:

His outfit was red. (courtesy Gawker.com)

But there was a red carpet, a photographer and one of those lighting umbrella things. That picture above is actually from the 2008 debut of Kellogg's "Under The Hood" streetwear. It's my new obsession. Does anyone own any of these pieces? Apparently the line went bust. Wonder why?

Aah. I love it.

This is my favorite. Whaddup elves.

 After the five-minute fashion show, Elbow and I caught up with the lady who previously was seen wandering the CBD yelling, "Ralph!? Ralph?!" She was looking for her dog, a four-pound shih tzu. White. I of course was absolutely worried to death about Ralph and tried to help the lady find him, while Elbow tried to explain to me how a second frantic woman running the streets yelling "Ralph?!" would be of no help at all.

Thankfully, she walked past us and said someone had found Ralph and was holding him for ransom at Kinko's (Now FedEx Documents) down the street. 

Oh geez that's cute.

The Stars and Stripes

One great thing about the house where Elbow and I live is that it sets on sorta a main street in Uptown New Orleans. This is great for, say, sitting on the front porch and people watching, but not so great for activities such as walking around your house sans shirt or solo dance parties.

But one thing it's really great for: Irking Tiger fans! WVU plays LSU this weekend, which will be especially fun for us if WVU wins. On Fridays, some of the girls in my office sport yellow dresses and purple scarves. I'm gonna wear my WVU skort from Gabe's tomorrow.

You really have to be from the Mid-Atlantic region to know what "Gabe's" means. But my sister knows: disposable outfits!

It's fun to be a redneck in Uptown.

Proudly hailing

Can you spot the porch swing? Elbow installed one on Tuesday

They're everywhere!

I promised a story about a rocket scientist. I'm going to keep this short. A few weeks ago a disheveled guy in mandals with a  coffee stain on his t-shirt came in to the office to use our copier/fax machine. He is apparently related to someone here and, more importantly, a bona fide rocket scientist!

He was on his way to present a proposal to a big company who would fund his little start-up he dubbed "Five Guys and a Chicken."

"Wearing that?" I wanted to ask.

This guy was just talking away and I just kept asking him questions. He and his comrades are building a rocket ship to send to Outer Space. Remember that small news story a while back about the founder of Amazon's failure at rocket building? When I read that, I didn't come away with "Hmm ... it's too bad his rocket crashed." I was more like, "The founder of Amazon is building a rocket ship??" Here's that story: Billionaire Rocket Man

The guy (Chicken-Rocket Man) in our office is in a space race with the founder of Amazon. I don't like those odds.

So Chicken-Rocket Man tells me they are now working on a model called the Taurus 2.

I ask what happened to Taurus 1. He says "Ha ha. It blew up!" Giant grin.

Ha ha. I hope he wins.

Saints Fans are so stylish

I just love coming to work after a Thursday night football game. Everyone is always a little slow. Or still drunk. I have pictures of Saints fans. We went to three bars and drove around so I got a pretty good mix.

Ugh. I think I prefer jorts.

Looks like a Steelers game with the wrong names on the jerseys.

Uh, who dat?

This guy made this jacket!!!

"Wait. Get the back."

Girls!

 

 

And then, on our way to the third bar, we took Ms. A's car and I discovered one of life's little secrets that middle-aged men have known for years: Convertibles are so fun!

Rollin' with my homies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During our moonlit cruise through the Cultural District, we passed a guy dressed as Elvis who screamed "Take me with you!" Too cool for Elvis.

I tried to go home and watch the 4th quarter but our cable isn't working. Elbow has been out of town and I haven't told him yet. He might be a teensy bit upset when he gets home this evening and can't catch up on Breaking Bad or whatever.

Coming soon: My conversation with a real-live rocket scientist! Next on SamLivesInNola. Stay tuned.

Black and Yellow (Gold)

Officially the Saints are black and gold, right? And the Steelers are black and yellow? Or is that just a Wiz Khalifa song?

Whatever color the Saints are, their uniforms are in full regalia today all over the city. I'm sure the halls of the hospitals are packed with every version of Saints scrubs imaginable and everyone in the OR is wearing their little Saints bandana caps. Our graphic designer has on glittery gold shoes that sparkle to the tune of Elton John.

Tonight I am going to the Rusty Nail (somewhere in the Quarter?) to pretend to watch the game. Oooh, I might watch some of it, but almost nothing can keep my attention for three hours. Maybe if you could see the players' faces or just maybe if I understood more of the rules. I've tried. Really. But I prefer to fill my brain with useless celebrity triva instead. Whatev. Football is still a good reason to get together and drink beer! I'll take lots of pics of these Saints fans so everyone can see how they do it in "Who Dat" nation, as opposed to Steeler Nation.

I was in south Florida this weekend and got SUNBURNED. Here's a picture of me shooting pool water out of my nose. Ft. Lauderdale is sorta like the show Jersey Shore. So I'm sure this pool is full of Red Bull and pee.

We sneaked into the W rooftop pool