The Trip to No-Where!

Yesterday morning, I got up at 5:30 to make a 8:40 flight (thru Dallas) to Phoenix. I had a one day training seminar for work. The flight took off on time and everything was going well. Until we started our decent into the Dallas. The turbulence was crazy. We had 3 major drops (it felt like a Roller Coaster) before we pulled up and aborted the landing. I was very very close to tears. The Dallas Airport closed shortly there after and we were sent to Shreveport, LA. Now those who don't know, Shreveport is a very small. So small that we had to sit on the tarmac because 6 other flights were also detoured to this airport and they couldn't accomodate all these planes. So our plane and a couple others couldn't get to the terminal. We sat there for 3 hours when they finally decided to send us back to New Orleans (because the Dallas airport decided to shut down for the remainder of the day) Apparently, Dallas was having major thunderstorms, tornado warnings, and flooding. When we got back to New Orleans, we hoped to reschedule our flight for a later time. No such luck. New Orleans Airport took on 11 flight that were also deverted from Dallas. The place was a mad house. So needless to say I went home (and happy to do so). The positive side is that I got alot of reading done.

Braggging Rights

Erin volunteered in her Chemistry Class to be a representative for Mandeville High School in a Literary Rally at SLU. The Rally is basically a test given to those respresentatives from a variety of Local Schools, in the Subject they volunterred. So, out of 23 kids, Erin got 1st place, she smoked them (5.5 points greater then the closest score) Here's a link. http://www.selu.edu/resources/litrally/results/index.php?test=CHEM&div=1&st=Submit

Now she goes on to test in April at LSU.

Irish/Italian Parade

Last weekend, the kids and I had an opportunity to ride in the Irish/Italian Parade in Chalmette, La. It was fun! We threw Beads, Footballs, Potoatoes and Cabbages (it's tradition to throw food for an Irish stew.) The ride lasted about 3 1/2 hours. This was the first ride for the kids and they had an Excellent time. Best part, it was free. A friend's Uncle is the local distributor for Red Baron products and needs riders for the Float.

USS New York

It was a Great Navy Day. The temperature was 74 degrees on a beautiful sunny day. A bit hot but

I loved it. The ceremony was unorthodox for the Navy. Usually it's just speakers, but this time they had preformers. The USO, Rebecca Lynn, Charlie Daniels (he wrote a song for the Ship) and a Fireman from New York who sang the National Athem plus another song at the end of the ceremony. He was fabulous, I could have listen to him all day. They didn't have the normal party afterwards (too many people, 4000+) but that didn't keep us from partying. A bunch of contractors and Gov't workers spent the evening and night in New Olreans painting the town red. Here's a link to the ship: http://www.ussnewyork.com/wordpress/

Erin's 15 minutes of fame

Erin was an extra in a Movie this past week. The Movie is called " Cirque du Freak". The movie is based on a series of Books. She found the part by searching Craig's List and and saw the it was being filmed in New Orleans and they need a bunch of High School kids as extras. So she told a couple of her friends and they all went down (3 weeks ago)to audition and got the part. One Friend, Sal, got an extra part. Another friend David , was invited to also be an extra in another movie (cause he was 18), that's filming next week. Their part was filmed this past Thursday and Friday. The scene was in a High School and the extra's had to run down the hall, away from a spider (spider will be computer generated). They worked for 2 days and had a great time. The pictures are with one of the stars, Josh Hutherson, here's a link to the other movies he's done. http://imdb.com/name/nm1242688/. We are not sure when the movie will be out, the site states sometime in 2008, movie info link http://imdb.com/title/tt0450405/. I'll let you know if she can be seen in the movie, then one day you can rent it. Personally, I would never go see this movie if my kid wasn't in it.

MARDI GRAS - Parade Season: Jan 25th - Feb 5th

Can you tell? We had a great time.

The costumes are from the Float that we rode on, The Funky Tucks Funky Fox Float. We had 13 bags each of throws, approx the size of a pillow. The Throws were beads, stuffed animals, plungers, frisbee, Toilet paper, ect. This particular Crew (Tucks Parade) is a bit on the bizarre side. Not a conventional Mardi Gras parade. We ride for about 6 miles, that can take anywhere from 3-5 hours.

We spent the whole weekend downtown, running around Bourbon Street, eating, and of course drinking. Some day we will realize that we are getting old and can't hang like we use to. Anyone wanting a great time should ride with us.

Las Vagas

I had a good time in Las Vegas. It started off slow. I didn't arrive to the WYNN Hotel until 10pm on Friday night. Needless to say, everyone was out. So I got brave and went down to the hotel bar to have a night cap by myself. (They make an awesome Cosmo.) I met a few locals and ended up staying out way too late. The next day the company took a bunch of us to the Hoover Dam. That was real interesting and I took a bunch of pictures. Saturday night was a Cocktail party, Sunday was the conference all day (8:00 am to 5:00 pm) then a dinner with awards. My office got an award for breaking 100million under management (picture to follow). Later that night a bunch of us walked to the Bellagio to watch the Fountains (but of course it was too windy and they weren't running). I tried to gamble, but I'm not a lucky person. I put $10 in a poker machine and lost it in 10 minutes, then I tried Keno, only to lose all my money with a push of a button. No clue how that worked so I gave up. I had a better time just hanging out with colleagues. It took a while for then to warm up to me (believe it or not). I am only 1 of 4 women Financial Advisors in the whole firm. Of which none of the other women Advisors were at the conference. So for the most part, I think everyone thought I was a staff member. Until the Award dinner, when I went up to get the award and get my picture taken with Adam. After that, people started talking to me.

I started this blog saying that the Weekend started out slow, because for the most part I was by myself and not a whole lot of people were talking to me, but as the weekend progress, I started meeting more people, introducing myself around, and ended up Sunday night @ 2:00am hanging out with Adam (by the way is the CEO and Founder)and his staff. And the best part of the whole weekend (not only did I get to sleep in a King size bed all by myself) I lost 3 pounds (now mardi Gras will put that right back on).