I am procrastinating out the wazoo today. Yesterday, I worked my butt off cleaning my kitchen, I had to pick up the little guy from school earlier than I should have because he kept spitting on everybody when he was repeatedly told not to (his teacher did the "If you do that one more time..." and, of course, he did it. Mom had to take the kid out like she was taking out the garbage as a result), and I rewarded myself by checking out last night's parades (Clay and Candice did good in their float debut, by the way). Today, my body and my legs are paying the price for all that activity. And I still have to clean the rest of this place up - our pals who moved to the north shore recently will be commandeering our place for the Muses parade tonight, if the weather doesn't kill their plans first. At least I can see my countertops again and my toilets are squeaky clean.

Sooo, much as I would love to take this whole cleaning job and shove it, I really don't have much of a choice right now, especially with the Krewe of Pancakes and Syrup doing its thing at my humble blue home on the gray brick road come Mardi Gras Day.

invite picture courtesy of Dan C.
If'n you wanna come, lemme know at liprap2@netscape.net.
Act right and bring somethin'!

I'm waiting on the painters of our house to unstick the windows they painted shut so that, among other things, we can head out onto our balcony and pelt passersby with beads accumulated from past parades this weekend (hey, it improves the little guy's hand-eye coordination!). I am also contemplating whether or not we should stock up on some s'mores ingredients to take advantage of the fire pit in the backyard our tenants have had going off and on throughout the parading season - Dan got some marshmallows the other night after a long evening of checking out some parades, only to find that the fire had gone out by the time he came back with the food. Man, was he ticked. Anybody got a line on purple, green, and gold marshmallows?

ANYway, I have me some links.

A little something from AnimaMundi that's kind of appropriate to this time of year:

"Here's the problem for a drinker.
If things are going to hell, you drink to forget. If they're going great, you drink to celebrate. If there's nothing to do, you drink to have something to do."

Best argument for not adding to the national Nielsen ratings on February 3rd and going out to watch Hulk Hogan in Bacchus instead: tell Super Bowl sponsor Bridgestone-Firestone to take their off-the-books yet still documented slavery practices in Liberia and shove 'em up their collective butts sideways with chainsaws. Chances are, I will be out on the parade route anyhow as an official enabler for Dan's obsession with doubloons, while he sits at home and watches the Patriots (hopefully) get their comeuppance. Plus, I really really don't want to enable stuff like this. Double Stuf Oreos are gross.

Cliff gives us actions and words to live by.

Charlotte informed everybody on the bloggers' listserve about the New Orleans Murder Blog, which I have added to my blogroll. Today's entry is a sobering one for me personally (my cousin stayed in that Hollerday Inn when he was here with his high-school group), as is the one for Nicola Cotton, the officer shot in the line of duty recently in Central City.

Miss Amanda Shaw is a real switch - a teenager in the public eye who is smart, polite, and is following her dream on her own terms. Damn, that's kind of sad that that's not the norm. Plus, her new album is really good. And yeah, I know how strangely cool it would be if she was "Miss Amanda Jones", but hey, it ain't a perfect world. Deal with it.

If I were of a mind to do a Sheckrastos-style caption contest, I'd do it with this picture. Priceless. Absolutely priceless.

This is for Maitri. If you ever get in a situation where you are in labor and you see one of those patented turntables in the delivery room, RUN. Listen and giggle, madame.

I took this sucker recently and was thoroughly embarrassed. I am only 67-point-whatever percent smarter than the rest of all us peons. Take the quiz and lie down afterwards. Drink yourself into oblivion if you need to...it is that time of year after all.

Oh, and my Hornets offer still stands, youse guys. I must warn you, however, you may have to prop me up with a two-by-four and dust me off if you expect it to happen right after Mardi Gras.

Just letting you know....

Update, 12:43 PM: Okay, so loads of parades have been rescheduled or cancelled due to the weather that's coming. Can you say "momentary sigh of relief?"