Monday, February 16, 2015

Happy Mardi Gras, Everyone!


It's Mardi Gras time here in New Orleans. That means parades, king cakes, mounds of beads, house guests, crawfish boils, traffic jams, and late nights.

I've been in the city long enough that I take a rather laid back approach to Carnival. If the weather's beautiful and the crowds aren't too hideous, I go. This past weekend, the weather was gorgeous.
Today is Lundi Gras, the day before Mardi Gras, so of course everything is closed and I have husband and DD2 home from work/uni (DD1 is already driving back to San Antonio). I'm going to TRY to work on plotting out Where the Dead Lie. But it's already noon and I'm still nursing a latte....

15 comments:

JustWingingIt said...

Sometimes the lattes have to take priority. *wink*

Veronica

Lynne said...

Veronica has spoken-the latte is more important. And some of us are just approaching Ash Wed. So have fun for me, please:).

Quilterin said...

I have lovely memories of my visit to New Orleans last November.
I am actually looking forward to Lent this year as I have declared it a TV free time to catch up on all the reading I have not done these last months. On top of my list is a re-read of the whole Sebastian series!

Anonymous said...

well you look like you are having a good time. i have never been to mardi gras but i would like to.

in my house growing up, today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day! one of my favorite days of the year. after church my parents would take us to the local IHOP. i could never get enough. tonight i will make them at home but have some restraint. and if all else fails - have a second latte. couldn't hurt!
best Ali

cs harris said...

Veronica, I ended up doing nothing but sitting around talking to my husband and daughter, which is a wonderful way to pass the day.

Lynne, it's funny, tourists are always surprised the way the fun shuts off at midnight. This city is still very Catholic.

Quilterin, November is a good time to visit New Orleans--although if I remember correctly November last year was pretty cold. Have fun reading!

Ali, it is a fun time, especially the two weekends before. Mardi Gras day itself is too crowded for me unless I have a friend's house nearby to escape to. The pancake tradition sounds wonderful.

Charles Gramlich said...

glad to be home today though. Cold out there.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I thought you gave up coffee? I'm with you though; a latte is my life's blood. I've tried to give them up and I just can't. I justify it with telling myself that it is more milk than coffee and the milk is good for me. At which point my husband says almond milk would be better for me, but I can do that in cereal but I just can't in coffee. It makes it taste too weird. Good luck in plotting. Looking forward to meeting you in 2 weeks in Seattle!!!! Sabena

cs harris said...

Charles, it is really cold out there. Even if I normally did Rex and Zulu, I'd be staying home today!

Sabena, yeah, that whole "give up coffee" thing didn't last! I only have one cup (okay, a big cup) a day, and I tell myself it's good for my asthma, and since I make the latte myself I control the milk and the caramel syrup. But I know I'd be better off without it. The ironic thing is that I hated coffee until 5 years ago, when I spent a month at my mother's hospital bedside after she fell while both my daughters were in England, and I was desperate to stay awake. Now I'm hopelessly hooked.

Suzanne said...

I have been hearing lots about coffee in science programmes here recently and the latest theory seems to be that like dark chocolate it is actually good for preventing heart disease. That is assuming that you drink it properly and not fill it up with lolly muck. Caramel syrup? Gross! If you lose that you can most likely keep enjoying your one coffee per day and feel all virtuous at the same time.

Susan J. said...

The Mardi Gras festival looks such fun, I wish we had something like it here. I used to go to Spain regularly and we used sit up until all hours in a bar listening to a gypsy flamenco guitarist called Maretti, drinking Spanish brandy. Then we would walk back to our hotel at about four o'clock in the morning. That's the nearest I ever got to it. Happy days!

paz said...

Your pictures of Mardi Gras are nice. They remind me that the there is a world out there where streets are not covered by weeks-old dirty ice and always newer snow; where people are not always looking down in gloom; and, perhaps most importantly, where weather broadcasters are more adept at concealing their unseemly excitement.

cs harris said...

Suzanne, but it's very nice caramel syrup! I can't drink coffee without some kind of sweetener and lots of milk; it's just too bitter for me.

Susan, I was a kid in Spain, and that flamenco music will forever be in my blood. Oh how I wish....

Paz, every summer I think about moving up north to get away from the heat, and every winter I watch the news and think, Nope. It did turn really cold after that day--although "really cold" means in the 30s.

Susan J. said...

How lovely to grow up partly in Spain! We used to go to Tossa, where they filmed 'The Flying Dutchman', starring beautiful Ava Gardner. There were pictures of her on the walls of many of the cafes, even decades after the filming.

Suzanne said...

Candy, it sounds like you need to change your brand of coffee. Good quality coffee shouldn't be bitter. I used to work with a man who's family owned one of Australia's big coffee companies and he told me that if coffee is bitter it means it has been over roasted to try and disguise the fact that they have used inferior quality beans. So keep looking. A spoonful of raw sugar won't hurt you but all of that lolly muck filled with corn syrup will.

cs harris said...

Susan, I don't think I've ever recovered from having to leave.

Suzanne, I've tried quite a few high end roasts (I grind it fresh every morning), but I still haven't found any coffee I can drink without lots of milk and something to sweeten it. I didn't drink it at all until five years ago when my mom was in the hospital and I had to stay awake for a month; that's when I got addicted.

I use an organic caramel syrup that's actually made for ice cream and just stir a small bit in my morning latte. I swore off all corn syrup, trans fats, artificial sweeteners, and red meat about 20 years ago now.