Party

Chasing Steeples Again

More or less repeat of my wrally wrap up over on the MMC website:

I don’t know what you were doing last Saturday, but we along with three other couples were enjoying what was basically a Division 1 college football tailgate party, interrupted by a six or seven horses whizzing by every half hour or so.

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Not only did President Tom allow us the use of his rail-side parking spot, but he had a cake delivered to our tent that said “Happy Retirement Donna.” If Tom offers up his spot next year we’ll probably come again, we are not big horse racing fans, but it is a fun event to eat, chat and people watch. This year we hefty a few leftovers in our lunch sack, I threw the folding chairs over my shoulder and we walked the mile home unlike, last year where it took us over an hour just to drive the Miata for enough to get out side the venue’s gate.

Big Easy

One of the parties planned for Adele’s 90th birthday celebration was to be a champagne & chocolate fete thrown by her eldest daughter Susie. So I thought I had it made with the Hammond B&B being practically next door to the birthday girl’s house and all. This way if I had a flute or two too many, I could walk home afterwards not risking a DUI. I was also hoping not to have to drive into New Orleans and thought maybe I wouldn’t have to, as Donna was not to pleased after our last trip in 2012 to the town where she last lived before joining Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club.

Sunday afternoon, not long after arriving in Hammond both hopes are dashed summarily when I was informed the Champagne & Chocolate party was going to take place in the Big Easy’s Garden District. Susie and her husband John were renting a house in New Orleans so they had a place for them and their two adult daughters that was a little more cosmopolitan and more to their liking than Hammond. And when I say house, its not just any old house, it is owned by a native New Orleanian artist and decorated in a style that would probably be too funky in any other town in America. It is kind of over the top, but so far over it worked. VRBO Listing

The party was slated to run from 1-4 PM, so we decided on a 2 o’clock arrival. We left Hammond about ten o’clock and instead of taking I-55 due south, we opted to take the somewhat scenic route of LA-22 west around Lake Maurepas before catching I-10 east into the city. We had three goals in the French Quarter to take care of before making our way over to the party. First up was lunch real Louisiana gumbo for Donna and red beans and rice for me. Then we needed to make our way to Aunt Sally’s for pralines, one for dessert and a box to bring home as souvenirs. Last up were some beignets from Cafe du Monde. This one didn’t work out so well. Because it was mid-day the place was jammed with tourists1 and the line was real long for a table. We then though maybe we’d just get an order to go, but that line was even longer…maybe next time. We did get a chance to stroll along river on the Moon Walk for a bit and I took the obligatory photo of the St Louis Cathedral and one of the Mighty Mississippi.

Happy 2017

For the first time in the recent (and not so recent) years Donna and I actually welcomed the Gregorian New Year while awake. Not only were we not sleeping we were not even at home, we were at someone’s house, at an actual party, with a flute of champagne in our hands.

What started out as a small intimate affair for the Valve Store’s Accounting Manager’s family on their 26 acre bit of country, has morphed over the years, as their kids have grown, into a a decent size gathering of extended family and friends. This year she invited us and a few other ASCO folks to join the fray to even out the young adult to adult ratio.

These folks do it up right too, plenty of food and drink, a huge bonfire and a crap ton of fireworks. They start small with roman candles and large sparklers at just dark and build up slowly at intervals to the big finish just before midnight.

We split not too long after the finale and made it home and into bed around 1 AM. We didn’t sleep too well though. Apparently there is a quite a difference in how the human body reacts to consuming large quantities of non-alcoholic (and some alcoholic) drinks, plus food, up until around midnight and then just jumping into bed less than an hour later from when you are 30 to when you are 60. Next year we may have to come home and spend an hour or two watching a movie to wind down some.