May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

It is finally time...time for the premier of Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games movie! Last year Matt and I dressed as Katniss and Peeta, along with our friends Liz and Dexter (Katniss #2 and Haymitch). This year, we decided to dress as Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman. The books were so good- the kind of book you can't put down, where the characters come to life and you totally forget they are fictional. I can remember driving to work in the mornings wondering how Peeta and Katniss were doing and trying to figure out how I could squeeze in a few pages before I had to start working. Movies are just too short to capture all the details, side stories, historical information about each character, and symbology, but the movies have been really good so far. I can't wait until the next one (it's release date is November 21, 2014!). Here are pictures from the premiere last night... we went to dinner first at 5 Fifty 5 on Canal. I don't think anyone had a clue who we were supposed to be and presumably thought we were just weird. You can get away with "weird" in New Orleans though, so it was okay. One lady approached us as though she was star struck and asked us if we were "music people". Funny.

 

 

 

 

 

 



November 16: Street Corner Jazz

Hello November!

Well, November is half over. I'm not sure how it has happened. It feels nothing like November in New Orleans. Today it was 75 degrees with some serious humidity. It's been a while since the last post... so what have we been doing??? Well, we've been a little lazy the last 2 weekends. Last weekend we drove over the 24-mile bridge to the Northshore and visited a couple state parks. Here's one of my favorite pictures from the drive (the water is Lake Pontchartrain).

This week was a busy one for both of us. I was in an intensive grant writing training all week and Matt's school was conducting interval testing. We're both ready for some holiday time off!

Today (Saturday) we spent most of the day in the French Quarter. We wandered the streets, went to the Christmas festivities at the French Market (although it seems a bit early for that), and did a little shopping. We ended the night at Theo's, our favorite pizza joint. Here are some photos from the FQ today.

It'll be December in only 2 weeks. Most years I'm ready to put up the tree and start wrapping presents the weekend after Halloween. This year, I'm just feeling it yet. We've had 2 cold days, and by cold, I mean 55 degrees. Of course, the New Orleans locals were wearing coats and scarves those days. Funny!

 

 

Halloween Weekend Cemetery Walk

We went for a cemetery walk Saturday evening. It seemed like a good way to wrap up all of our Halloween festivities with some nice reflection and thoughtfulness. The cemeteries in New Orleans are actually beautiful. The statues, sculptures, and artwork carvings on the graves are amazing. Historically, some of them date back a couple hundred years. Here are some of the photos...

Arg! Pirates invade the Louisiana Renaissance Festival!

We love a good Renaissance Festival! Fish and chips, chicken on a stick, costumes from kings and queens to fairies and elves. This weekend was "pirate weekend" so of course we dressed up! It was so much fun. The best part is always The Wench Show and their best advertisement ever: Clean Family Fun, Wet Dirty Women! I love it :)


 

Our First Halloween in New Orleans!

I heard on the news today that New Orleans is now the #1 Halloween destination in the entire country. I believe it. People come from miles and miles to hunt for ghosts, hear haunted tales, and drink "spirits" as well as see them. Of course, Halloween is probably the worst time for all that in New Orleans. The French Quarter is packed with costumed tourists and locals alike, music is blaring from every bar and pub, and beads are being thrown from the parade and random balcony. It would surely be hard to spot a ghost amongst all those shenanigans. Tonight it rained. Also not too conducive for ghost hunting. However, I do wonder what is going on out in the cemeteries tonight!! Our costumes were inspired by the city: Voodoo Queen and Voodoo Doll. Although I'm not sure it was clear to everyone what we were. Someone called Matt a "Pin Cushion" (close!) and someone else decided he was just a really scary scarecrow. Here are pictures of us and friends as well as shots from Molly's Annual Halloween Parade.

The Working Witch...

Too bad I can't wear a witch hat to work every day!