Taking a vacation

I won't be posting anything else until March 4th. It's time for a vacation in the caribbean. The wife and I are going for a 7 day cruise. You can see where we're going at the link below. Taking a vacation Tags: cruise vacation caribbean

Randazzo's King Cakes

A long time ago, as a consultant far, far away, I worked at Yale university as a consultant on Project X (that was it's real name, I swear. Do a google on "yale project x"). Anyway, I had never lived anywhere but New Orleans and San Antonio, TX. New Haven, CT was a different kind of place for me. After an interminable grey winter, the spring approached. Mardi Gras time! But I was stuck in yankeeland, New England. Don't take offense at the label of yankeeland. I wasn't going to make it back for the parades so I did the next best thing (me and a friend of mine from Slidell who was working there too), we ordered some Randazzo King Cakes to be overnighted to us. I think we ordered 4 large. An original and three stuffed with different kinds of goodness. We went through the history of the king cake with our co-workers and then chowed down. I have several very fond memories of my time at Yale and this is one of the best. I'll have to tell the story about setting the crawfish free sometime. The link below is about a bakery called Randazzo's. I don't know for sure that it's the same one, but I can't imagine there is more than one. I'm glad to see they're back. FOXNews.com The Sweet Smell of Starting Over Tags: mardi gras new orleans King Cake

ODTUG Desktop Conference

This is a post from my professional blog. If you have a few minutes, please browse on over and vote for me in the IT Toolbox Community Choice Awards. ODTUG Desktop Conference Tags: oracle award conference

Happy Birthday Mardi Gras

Only if you aren't from New Orleans can you ask "Why don't they cancel Mardi Gras?" You can no more cancel Mardi Gras than you can cancel Christmas or Thanksgiving. Mardi Gras is a day that you can choose to ignore but it will still happen. Parades can be cancelled but the day will go on. As long as there's music in New Orleans, there will be some kind of Mardi Gras. BTW, I think CNN is doing the best job of covering New Orleans and Katrina. Much better than the networks or the other cable news channels. CNN.com - Through war and yellow fever, the party rages on in New Orleans - Feb 19, 2006 Also, the link above talks about the flood of 1979. I was 13 during that flood. Me and two of my buddies help push a car that was stuck out of some people's yard. A photgrapher happened to pass by and took a picture of us. We were on the front page of the east bank guide, a local weekly news paper. My father was a New Orleans cop. He died in the line of duty that year. Tags: mardi gras new orleans 150

Spam

If you're like most people, you just let your spam blocker do it's job and then delete the crap it sends to your spam folder. I, however, am not like most people. I like to browse through the list and pick out interesting subjects. Some are just gross but some are really quite funny. My email of choice (yahoo) displays sender, subject and date. Here are some actual senders and subjects that I got today: Attention Ladies sends Enjoy your love life as much as he does. If they think that's possible, they just don't know me. Doggy Steps sends Don't miss cuddling with your dog. My dog has gotten a restraining order. SushiTrendCo sends Frozen Sushi Warms Investors' Hearts. Ick! Sushi-pops. Rick Knutson sends Take just a candy and become ready for 36 hours of love. 10 minutes, 15 maybe. 36 hours? Owww. Merle B. Fox sends Enlargement for you. Thanks. Right back atcha! Chris sends Online Mexican Pharmacy. A good idea (Mexican Pharmacy) just got better! Lipo Alternative sends Liposuction without surgery. All you need is a straw and good lungs? aw-confirm@eBay.com sends Please update your eBay account ! Oh right. Like I'm going to fall for that one! Again. The Rich Jerk sends Don't waste my time. Ok. Find Love sends browse local singles for free. Browse? How about touch? Get Ephedra sends Ephedra is Back-Get It While You Can. The stuff that kills people? Where do I sign? Tags: spam email

Cartoon Violence Headlines

The violence brought on by some cartoons is really surreal. Everytime I hear "cartoon violence" I think of Tom & Jerry. Here are some of my favorite headlines so far (the articles are unimportant, it's all about the headline!): Cartoons: 2 Dead in Pakistan Riots Hmmm? I wonder if Wile E got some Pakistani road runners? The Reality of Cartoon Violence Hmmmm? Am I the only one who sees something fundamentally wrong with "cartoon reality"? Blair: Cartoon Violence Unacceptable Hmmm? Maybe they should put ratings on them? That darn Bart Simpson! Danish Imam Condems Cartoon Violence Hmmmm? I wonder how he feels about video games and porn? Cartoon Violence: What's wrong with this picture? Hmmmm? I don't know. Maybe the fact that we're even asking what's wrong with this picture? And my favorite headline so far: Hezbollah Leader to Bush, Rice: 'Shut Up' Well that's mature. Tags: cartoon violence coulter politics

CALVIN AND HOBBES -- AND MUHAMMAD - Yahoo! News

I am not really a right winger. I'm not a left winger either. I tend to be right down the middle in that I think all politicians are idiots. I normally consider myself a republican though. George bush has me leaning a little bit more left than I used to. I won't go into the details of that in this post except to day that W needs to hire Ann Coulter as his media person. I haven't read any of her books but I love watching her on fox news. Not so much because I agree with her (I do some, I don't some) but because she is so feaking funny. The post below is a prime example of that. CALVIN AND HOBBES -- AND MUHAMMAD - Yahoo! News I think insulting someone's religion is a bad thing. I think freedom of the press is good. To kill people for any reason is bad. To commit violence for religious reasons is real bad. I feel bad for all of the people who did nothing but have been killed and injured. What a world we live in! Tags: cartoon violence coulter politics

US group implants electronic tags in workers

This falls under jobs I'd prefer not to have. Would you be willing to have a glass encrusted silicon chip implanted in you for your job? I'd rather be an anal thermometer tester at Johnson & Johnson. How much privacy does someone need? FT.com / By industry / IT - US group implants electronic tags in workers Tags: jobs privacy rfid implant

Will Write For Chocolate - A Cartoon for Writers

Check this out. I ran across this cartoon that should appeal to any writer. Will Write For Chocolate Tags: writing cartoon

Katrina and missing family members

Read this story. CNN.com - Viewer call leads to missing mom's body I felt a lot like the woman in the story for a few days after Katrina. I couldn't get in touch with my mom, sisters or brother for most of a week. I tried the Red Cross after a couple of days and they said it was too soon for them to do anything. They said they would call back when they could. They called back after a month. I didn't have to wait that long, though. My mom was able to get a call out after they eventually made it to West Monroe, La. When the water started sloshing things off her kitchen table she decided it was time to hike to my sister's apartment. Her and my nephew practically swam through neck high water (at times my mom was on her tip-toes). They made it the 4 miles to my sister's 3rd floor apartment. When they were able to get out of there two days later, they made their way to a hotel in West Monroe. My nephew was able to text message my niece and everyone was able to contact each other. I finally heard from her and by that time she had heard from all three sisters. It was another couple of days before we heard from my brother. Everyone made it through although my brother died 7 weeks afterwards. I can't imagine what state my mind would have been, or would be now, if it had been months before I found out anything. I really feel for the lady in the story above. And her family. Katrina sucked. Still sucks. It's like the neverending storm. Tags: family new orleans katrina

Random Thought of the day

LewisC's Law: It's better to be last through a green light than to be first at a red light. TimH's Corollary: But if you have to be at a red light, it's better to be first.

Jazz Fest 2006 is a go!

Jazz Fest is on. Same place as normal. You can get the details here. Unfortunately, I'll be in New Orleans in late May for a wedding so I won't make the fest. Jazz Fest 2006 From New Orleans.Com! Since I will miss the food, I try to make up for it by eating at the cajun cafe as often as possible. The food is amazing! It's real cajun. The whiskey bread pudding is killer! Tags: Jazz Fest New Orleans Music Food

Homeless again in New Orleans

This is an etremely well written and mind boggling journal entry. It talks about a lot of things that I think most people don't realize. I saw the camps in City Park when I went to New Orleans at Christmas. Homeless again in New Orleans. It's a painful read. Tags: rebuild new orleans katrina

E G Simmons Park Ruskin Florida

What a great day! We needed to do the paperwork for our homestead exemption and my wife needed to get a new driver's license (because we moved) and none of that is real easy with a 2 year old, so I took a day off from work and we made a day of it. First we slept in. I slept in the longest but my son worked with us on this and slept in until 8:30. That's about 2 hours later than normal. He's kind of sick so the whole day had a lot of snot wiping but I can live with that. Anyway, we finally got on the road and ran down to Ruskin, FL. It's in the same county as Riverview but is a lot less crowded. The county offices down there get you in and out a lot faster than the ones in Brandon, FL. We did the homestead and license in under an hour. While we were there, we stopped in a goodwill store in the same strip mall. We like to browse goodwills and thrift stores. I found a first edition Larry Niven hard back in Great condition for $3.00. Can't beat that. Afterwards, my wife noticed a Buddy Freddy in the same mall. We ate lunch there. Ewwww! What a mistake. Buddy Freddy sucks! At least this one did. If this is the way all of them are I am surprised they're still in business. It was dirty, we had to scrounge to find a table since the unoccupied ones had not been bussed. There were people waiting for plates. Did I say it was dirty? Floors, walls and silverware. The food was all either under or over cooked. All in all a disappointing experience. I will never go to another buddy freddy, that's for sure. After though, I remembered a park we had gone to in the summer for a seafood and arts festival. The park is the E G Simmons Park of Ruskin Florida. It has a great play area for kids as well as being a beautiful park. From the beach (just south of Apollo beach) you have a view of both the Tampa and St Pete skylines. You can see the skyway bridge and the stadium in St Pete. An awesome view on a clear day and today was very clear. My wife met a mommy and son who were also there playing. She had just moved from Colorado and didn't really know anyone. The kids hit off and played like hyper active chipmunks. We finally got home and I took a quick cat nap. Yep, A really wonderful day. Tags: ruskin florida life

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? - New York Times

Here's an op ed piece by Anne Rice in the New York times. This is what I would like to have said. Anne Rice is kind of strange but she got this one right. Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? - New York Times Tags: rebuild new orleans katrina

Slidell Mayor is upset

WWLTV.com | Slidell mayor fumes: All we hear about is Ninth Ward I just read this on wwltv.com. Slidell is where two of my sisters live. My brother lived there a long time and I hung out there quite a bit in my teenage years. That was the first place I stopped when I went 4 months after Katrina. It was still wrecked. The houses and busineses along hwy 11 just don't exist anymore. The things that are still standing look like a bomb went off. The hotel that my wife and I and our wedding party stayed in on Gause Rd is damaged and still not open. The chapel we got married in has roof damage but is at least still there. Tags: slidell new orleans katrina

Wednesday

Is it wednesday already? Invasion is on at 9. Or is it 10? It's getting DVR'd. I have been going non-stop since last week. Work is picking up speed, I have a bazillion wiritng deadlines and I am working on something I can't share just yet but it's taking a toll on both my free time and my sanity. I went shopping last night and bought a new suit. Jacket, shirt, pants, tie, belt and socks. I wore it all to work today. Everything I was wearing was brand new except for my underwear. And they weren't even all that fresh. I like the double takes that generates. I don't normally wear dress shirts much less a tie and jacket. I like the looks people give me when I do that. Of course the first thing people ask is if I'm interviewing. I say, "Yeah, it's a phone interview." heh Man, I'm tired. It's time for bed!