Telschow Drive-In Theater

It's been in the 70's down here in New Orleans since late January, so we've been enjoying grilling out and gardening for quite a while.  I'm pretty much obsessed with fresh basil, and my little plants are coming in nicely out on the front porch. Ray's working on building me a raised veggie bed in the backyard so I can transplant our veggies & herbs back there when it's time.

Using a seed starter I planted two types of Heirloom tomatoes (Mortgage Lifter & Golden Jubilee), some Green Bell Peppers, Lavender, Sweet Mint and Rosemary. I've grown plenty of herbs before, but this is my first encounter with full-on veggie action. The peppers don't seem so bad, but I'm fully intimidated by those tomatoes. If it weren't for the fact that my piggy little snout is watering for heirloom tomatoes, I wouldn't have attempted it. Because let's face it, I have zero interest in gardening unless it produces some kind of food. Flowers...meh.

So any and all advice is welcome - please help me grow heirloom tomatoes! I'm gonna post my plant's progress on here so you all can see how I'm doing :)  I'm so excited about it! Eating fresh herbs and tomatoes from my very own backyard will be a dream come true. Yum....now I'm thinking of all the burgers and caprese salad I can enjoy with them...

And speaking of grilling out, we decided to take things a step further this weekend. My husband is a big kid in the most adorable sense, and since the weather has been so nice, he decided to try out his new brainchild this weekend: movies in the backyard.

 



Ray's been talking about doing this for a while, and it was actually pretty ingenious. We have a big backyard (well, by New Orleans standards) with a very high & sturdy fence. There's also a big gate that swings open because the previous owners owned a boat. Ray's brother owns a projector, so naturally Ray thought we should throw up a white king size sheet on the fence, drive the car in the backyard, and have a Telschow Drive-In Movie Night, lol! Ray's immediate family came over (parents + brother & sister-in-law) and we grilled out and chatted in lawn chairs until it got dark enough to project the movie.

We also bought some tiki torches with mosquito repellant to add ambiance and ward off bugs, which unfortunately didn't work :( I have mosquito bites everywhere, even on the bottoms of my feet! THE BOTTOMS OF MY FEET!!! Curse you mutant swamp mosquitos!!! I shall find you and smote your ruin upon the mountaintop with Deet. And then rename myself Kaelin the White and save humankind from the mechanations of Mordor...er wait...mosquitos.

So for those of you looking for cheap family entertainment this summer, here you go! We plan on revamping our mosquito defenses and trying this again soon for the College Ministry we lead at our church.  We watched Up! this past weekend, but for the college kids we're thinking a fun, summery movie like Jurassic Park, ET, Super 8, or Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm going to try my best to talk them into Heavyweights, but hardly anyone's heard of that movie so it might be an uphill battle.

Also, we went to see one of my favorite bands ever this weekend - The Boxer Rebellion. And they rocked. Don't you just love when a band sounds even better in person? It's a rare and beautiful thing.

 

Here's to GREAT weekends!

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Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras! Make sure you eat something rich and decadent today in celebration ;)

P.S. Check out who was King of the Baccus parade this year - Will Ferrell! How awesome is that?! Step Brothers is pretty much one of my favorite movies ever (it's soooo underrated). I love Mardi Gras.

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Yikes.

This is what New Orleans looks like right now. It's a real party, lemme tell ya. Ray woke me up at 6:30 this morning because we had 6 inches of rain in the side yard and we needed to haul all our stuff out of the attached laundry room. The house is elevated about a foot off the ground, so as long at the big drainage ditch across the street doesn't overflow, we should be okay. The rain has tapered off a little, but we're supposed to get slammed again with more heavy rains tomorrow. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

On a funnier note, walking the dogs this morning was interesting. I had to carry them out one at a time to a small hump of grass in the yard that was sticking out above the water. I've dubbed it "puppy pee island". Fortunately, my dogs were clever enough to go as soon as I set them on their island, rather than doing their usual "inspiration sniffs" for 10 minutes. None of us wanted to stay out in that mess for long! (but we did have to endure the crazed wet dog "run 'n' roll around the house to get dry" for the next 10 minutes *wink*)

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We.Want.Fun. (A Blogiversary Giveaway!)

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED AND A WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN 

I promised fun, didn't I? So fun you shall have. In celebration of my 1 year blogiversary, I will be announcing a new giveaway every Friday this month! I'm cheating and posting this week's giveaway a little early because I'll be having an evening of fun-filled Mardi Gras-ing tonight and tomorrow, so I won't have time to post this tomorrow. Before you judge too harshly, Mardi Gras is very different when you're a local, because what the media shows the outside world is pure rubbish.

Lemme break it down like a fraction. There are two Mardi Gras....the disgusting-frat-boy-tourist-Mardi-Gras in the Quarter, and the local, family-friendly Mardi Gras that takes place on St. Charles Avenue. The best way I can describe it is to call it a city-wide tailgate party down St. Charles. You bring the whole family, set up some chairs, possibly a tent and a grill, and you hang out all day chatting with the people around you. There is no flashing or wild bouts of debauchery....just (mostly) good, family fun. And one of my favorite things are these genius inventions. Parents are so inventive. Obviously the little kids are too short to catch things or be seen by the riders with throws, so some creative person took a 6 foot wooden ladder, screwed a box with a safety bar on the top, attached some wheels, and voila! You have a portable booster seat for your kids to sit in and catch stuff! Only in New Orleans. I love this city :)

And bonus, on Mardi Gras Day (Fat Tuesday) most people tailgate AND dress up in costume for the parades. Also, local high school or military bands march in between each float during every parade (not just the ones on Mardi Gras Day), so I threw in some pictures for you to see! It's so much fun. These are all from last year:

(it's not every day you see a banana riding a bicycle)

So anywho...I was saying...tonight a bunch of us from the NOLA MQG are meeting up to go to my personal favorite, the Krewe of Muses parade. It's a fairly new Krewe (hence the sucky weekday parade time), but they have the best pageantry and throws. It's an all-female Krewe, so there you go. Leave it to the ladies to come up with kick-butt satirical floats and the best throws (hands DOWN!). They throw stuff like eye masks, bracelets, bedazzled shoes, feather boas, and cool bags. It's so awesome.

But enough of my prosthelytizing about Mardi Gras. On to the really good stuff!!!

Up for grabs this week are:

Item #1

Fat Quarter bundle of the Beach Mod Circa 60 line by Monaluna. There are a total of 9 FQ (2.25 yards), and it's a 100% organic cotton collection (ooh! ahh!)

Item #2

A copy of Denyse Schmidt Quilts, personally touched by me (just kidding about that last part...it's not really a bonus...more like an unavoidable peril, haha!)

So you know the drill. Here are the rules on how to enter:

1. Leave a comment.
2. For a 2nd entry, leave a comment telling me that you're a follower. If you're already a follower, leave a comment to that effect.
3. For a 3rd entry, blog about this giveaway, and leave a comment telling me so.
4. For a 4th entry, state one thing you've always wanted to see/do in New Orleans. Poor little New Orleans doesn't get many compliments, bless her heart, and she needs a little morale boost every now and then ;)

This giveaway IS open Internationally. The giveaway will close at Midnight on Wednesday, March 9th. Any comments left after that time will be disregarded. Also, if I draw your name for one of the prizes but can't find an email address for you, then I will immediately draw another winner. Long story short, make sure you provide me with some kind of way to contact you.

Good luck & thanks for playing!

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Ever wonder what thousands of crazed Saints fans look like?

Well now you know.

They were even partying on the rooftops.

And this is why I love the people in New Orleans. This little kid walked up to the guy next to me, tapped his arm, and asked "excuse me...can you pick me up so I can see the parade?" Next thing I know, the guy is hoisting him up on his shoulders, no questions asked! gotta love it! :)

Who knew giant Snickers were so low in calories? Gotta get me one'a dem.

But best of all, we got to see...

Taylor....

Bob Costas having sweat dabbed off his brow by the makeup artist....

And best of all, DAVE MATTHEWS BAND!!!

...all for the bargain price of zero dollars. We were able to get ridiculously close to the stage after the parade had finished (and right before DMB came on for the last two songs), because part of the crowd started charging through the special access gates just as a William Wallace-esque New Orleanian cried out "they can't stop us all!!!" So we joined in the madness and made a run at the stage. So worth it. I'm usually against social anarchy and the mob mentality, but for Dave I was willing to throw caution to the wind. Everyone was pretty calm about it and no crazy shoving or madness started, so the cops were like "meh. whatever." and let us be.

WHO DAT!!!

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