Tally Ho!

So last weekend D. and I hit up the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience. NOLA, one of Emeril's local restaurants, scored big with a pound cake with a Barq's root beer glaze (don't think I won't be looking for that recipe!), and lots of different vineyards were represented.

Much fun - and champagne - was had by all. Better yet, we saw this:

We also were fortunate enough to see our friend T., who was in town for a bachelor party. Mmmm, bell pepper rings and peanut butter pie at Franky and Johnny's. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

On Sunday we turned our living room into Indy headquarters and watched all three Indiana Jones films before traipsing over to the Prytania to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (WTH was up with the monkeys? Cate Blanchett's "Rocky and Bullwinkle" accent?)

This week has been insanely busy, but last night marked the beginning of four days of baseball. Last night was Jewish Heritage Night at the Zephyrs, and more the 170 members of the local Jewish community headed over to Zephyrs stadium for a double-header, $1 beer and kosher hot dogs.

Out of respect for the several orthodox rabbis sitting behind us, we contained our craving for the pork-laden Pig Nachos. Sigh.

Tonight we're heading to Tallahassee for the NCAA Baseball Regionals. Tulane, UF, Bucknell and FSU will be facing off in the 26th NCAA regional that the Seminoles have hosted.

Go Noles! FSU friends, we'll see you in the morning at Publix when we pick up our tailgating supplies.

Aching.

You don't know
Somebody's aching
Keeping it all in
Somebody won't let go
Of [her] heart...

That person would be me.



God, this hurts.

Cheap Shot Rob

I'm not kidding:

http://hoops.blink.ph/2008/05/16/desperate-champs-desperate-measures/

Robert Horry is a schmuck.

Kicking off Friday on a happy note!

Last night during D.'s live chat for NOLA.com, I made him post the link to Tony Parker's French rap video.

It's as if Kenny G met Shaq and produced a cheesy song in a post-modern French black-and-white documentary style.

Ergo, it makes me giggle on this rainy Friday morning.



Geaux Hornets!

ZOMG, David West...

Robert Horry took him out last night with a well-placed elbow to the back. West had injured his back in Game 5, but played most of last night's hideous Game 6 loss to the Spurs. Should David West have been playing in the 4th quarter when the Spurs were up by 20 points? Probably not. But should Robert Horry be such a jackass?

Well, you probably know my feelings on THAT.

And Spurs fans? They. Cheered. Horry. As. If. He. Were. Some. Kind. of. HERO.

Which clearly he is not.

http://deadspin.com/5009314/cheap-shot-rob-strikes-again

Seriously, I'd been a Spurs fan for YEARS until I moved to New Orleans...but last night, watching Bowen's flops and Horry's douchey moves, I was angry.

So here's a question, Hornets fans - good defense by the Spurs or just Oscar-caliber acting?

See for yourself...



As for Horry - just remember, he committed a flagrant, nasty foul (not that he was really punished for it) on Steve Nash last year, shoving him into the boards during the playoffs.

Megan Meier, part 3.

Lori Drew was just indicted by a federal grand jury in California.

Why California, and not Missouri?

Here's where lawsuits based around the internet get tricky - MySpace's servers are based in Los Angeles.

Perhaps Megan Meier's family will finally see some justice - and hopefully, some peace and resolution more than anything else.

So think this guy is a Saints fan?

I mean, his car is so subtle. (Seen in Metairie off West Esplanade yesterday...)

Buster Posey pwns you.

From AOL sports:

College athletics are fun because you always see players being ridiculously versatile. But Buster Posey, a Florida State baseball player (what position I have no idea to attach here), took things to a whole new level last night. He played all nine fielding positions. In one game.

In case you think I'm kidding about Buster Posey, well, I'll point to the Orlando Sentinel's awed column about his prowess:

First he played catcher. Then first base. Then second base. Then shortstop. Then third base. Then left field. Then center field. (Where are we now? OK -- seven positions so far.) Then he pitched. Then he played right field.

Oh yeah. In addition to playing all nine defensive positions on Monday night, Buster Posey also hit a grand slam during Florida State's 10-0 victory against Savannah State.

So all in all, not too bad a night, eh?

Posey, a leading candidate for every college baseball player of the year award there is, became the fourth Seminole to play all nine positions during a single game -- and first since Mike Martin Jr. did it during an FSU victory against Furman in 1994.

So...yeah, if Posey isn't voted college player of the year it will be a distinct travesty. This kid will at minimum be a top-ten draft pick, after all.

Go Noles!

Happy Fun Wednesday Time!

So it's been a crazy week - we spent Mother's Day in Pensacola in the emergency room of Sacred Heart Hospital after Mom became disoriented and confused. Turns out, she has pneumonia and was hypoxic (low oxygen).

She was released from the hospital 24 hours later, and I brought her back to New Orleans with me so that we can look after her for the next week or so.

Congrats to the Hornets for their 22-point win over the Spurs last night - and major kudos to David West, who scored 38 points. Let's hope we can ride that confidence back into San Antonio tomorrow night.

Oooh, wedding inspiration...chav-styley!

I'm sensing a theme here...



So much quality inspiration...but apart from tunelessly belting out Celine Dion and being all "I ain't bovvered," I could learn a LOT from Catrina Nolan's orange skin and 250 lb. wedding gown.

Nothing says class like this:

I'm kidding - well, let's just say I have ample inspiration for what NOT to do.

Chavtastic, my friends. Chavtastic.



I ain't bovvered.

What's the tackiest wedding you've ever been to? The ugliest dresses you've ever seen?



Let's see 'em, folks.

Happy Fun Wednesday Time!

Man, I loved this band back in the day - they were called Dogs Die in Hot Cars (you just can't make up something that absurd).

But then again, there's always The Coral...

It's here!

My dress is here. It was delivered to my office at 3:00 p.m.

I stared at the box for the rest of the afternoon and then took it home. D's covering the Hornets-Spurs game, so he wasn't home to see my glowiness.

I opened the box, peeled away the bubble wrap and discovered that the seller had sent me a rosary as a wedding gift.

(Considering we just met with Father Pat on Friday, that was weird...but very, very sweet.)

So I pulled it out of the box, and discovered that it was in the original garment bag with the tags still attached. So I tried it on...

...and it was perfect.

Just perfect.

I've never felt like a princess before in my life - but when I put this dress on (minus the fact that Charlie kept standing on the chapel-length train), I felt absolutely beautiful. I was glowing.

Even worse, I almost cried. If you know me, you know I don't easily cry.

I told D. some of this, and he said, "Wow, hon. I sure hope I don't faint when I see you in it."

::sigh::

For the first time, I feel like a real bride.

Seriously?

It's good to know that my old stomping ground of Broward County is using taxpayer money for worthy causes...like seceding from Florida.

From the City of Margate's official press release on the topic:

The North Lauderdale City Commission passed a resolution requesting that Florida be divided into two States…North Florida and South Florida with the boundary line from Palm Beach County down through Monroe County and is encouraging Palm Beach, Broward, Dade and Monroe Counties to join in the quest for a separation of the State of Florida.

“This has been going on far too long. We are here trying to give good service to our residents at the cheapest possible costs and we keep getting hammered by the State Legislatures,” Mayor Jack Brady said. “We believe South Florida has many different issues than those in North and Central Florida and yet we all get put into the same frying pan together….local officials are the closest to the people and we have to do what is right for our citizens.”

Florida has grown from a thinly populated rural state to the fourth most populous state of the United States. Population estimated to be nearly 19 million. The State of Florida has also grown from two initial counties to that of sixty-seven counties of which the most populous and urban are the three counties of Miami- Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Southeast Florida contributes more tax revenue to the State of Florida than it receives from the present State government. These counties being the most populated have requirements for conducting their affairs that are different and often times more intense than other portions of the State. Florida is too varied for this one-size fits all approach to cities and counties.

In recent years, the Legislature of the State of Florida has considered a number of proposals that have had a significant adverse impact on local governments’ ability to generate revenue and effectively perform their essential municipal functions with many of these initiatives resulting in a local government regression whereby as a direct result of legislative action certain counties and municipalities are becoming increasingly unable to perform essential public services.

During a recent visit to Tallahassee as part of the Broward Days lobbying, North Lauderdale Commissioner Rich Moyle told Legislators, “last year you beat our cities up and this year you are stealing our lunch money. How are we supposed to run our cities?” The question…Moyle said, mostly fell on deaf ears.

The Declaration of Independence of the United States provides that when any form of government becomes destructive to the extent that it no longer has the consent of the people governed, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish said government and institute a new government based on the foundation in which the people seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness and given the size of the State and the great differences in needs and priorities between the southern portion of the State and the northern portion of the State, the North Lauderdale City Commission has determined that it is in the best interests of the citizens and residents of the State to divide the State into two separate and distinct governing entities.

Wow...that's a spectacular use of logic and time. Well done, good sirs and madams. Ross and I were just chatting on IM about this magnificient idea:

Ross: How about just calling South Florida North Havana instead?
Me: Or Old York?

Kicking off Friday on a thoughtful note

So last night D. and I went to the uptown JCC in New Orleans for the community-wide Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) event.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Mark Wygoda, whose father Hermann lived a remarkable double-life during World War II.

Hermann was a German-born Polish Jew whose entire family was murdered during the early stages of the Holocaust. He witnessed the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt, smuggled food into the ghetto, lived in Berlin as a non-Jew (and was able to save Jewish children by smuggling them out of Germany on false papers) and ultimately led the Italian resistance movement from a cave in northwestern Italy under the moniker of "Captain Enrico."

Wygoda was commended and given awards by everyone from the newly-formed UN to the U.S. - in fact, his U.S.-awarded bronze star is what led him to move to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he started a second family who knew nothing of his heroics until much later in his life. In 1946, he wrote his memories of World War II down while his memory was fresh - and when he was much older he translated them into English.

So revered is he in Italy, his book was recently translated into Italian.

I bought Hermann's memoir, "In the Shadow of the Swastika" last night and it's utterly fascinating.

I highly recommend reading it - it's a phenomenal and real account of an ordinary man acting heroic during one of the most shameful periods in modern human history.

It's important for all of us to remember that the Holocaust was not a Jewish tragedy - it was a failure of humanity. Not only were 6 million people slaughtered purely for being Jews, but homosexuals and those who had mental handicaps were targeted as well.

It could happen again if we're not vigilant. It is happening in Darfur. It happened in the early-to-mid 1990's in the former Yugoslavia. It happened in China during World War II.

Astonishing? Yes. Horrific? Oh, yes.

But as George Santayana said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."