Happiest of new years. It has been in the 80’s the last few days, and while I do not expect that to continue, the days ARE getting longer and I am sure there will be spring flowers in five or six weeks. Mardi Gras is Feb 28th this year (Fat Tuesday) …… I had hoped to be able to get to the New Orleans celebration but we will likely not be able to do so because we are going to be moving the JFO “somewhere” as yet undetermined. There are parades and parties everywhere down here for Mardi Gras so I will likely take in one or two in Baton Rouge during that time instead of braving the crowds in New Orleans, the bad parking and the drive down and back…..play it by ear.

Newest news from here is that the city of New Orleans has retained a private firm to try to line up corporate sponsors for Mardi Gras… so you might see “American Express Baccus Parade”, or Prudential Financial Rex Parade as corporate sponsors for Mardi Gras… the locals are rolling their eyes over that one…. Seems this company is supposed to assemble a list of candidates and present it to the Mayor (remember mr FEMA lied to us?)who will make the final selections as to who the corporate sponsors are….it all seems so bizarre……

I have been camera shopping. Some of the photographs that were taken by the strike team that I displayed before and some of the personal effects photos I have seen but not displayed were taken with very high quality digital single lens reflex cameras. This is such photogenic country that having been exposed to high quality cameras again and these sights I really got the photography bug similar to grad school. Fog shrouded fields of sugar cane, sunrise along the Mississippi river and levee, frost on the grass… giant refineries…quaint buildings… gallon jars of pig lips,,, all crying out for a photo… :-D anyway.. the cameras are Nikon D2 and D200….. I also looked at the Nikon D70S with these two honker lenses for all three cameras (The Elite package…… now I expect OOOOOOO’s and AAHhhhhhhh’s from you each and every one) from this website called royalcamera.com... They got packages of lenses and accessories that are actually a very good deal….

Went to dinner this evening at the Casino Royale... they have a nice buffett... and excellent deserts including Bananas Foster.... One of the dishes was Fried Frog legs... which completely grossed out my dinner companion (this person actually ate something called "Gator Sausage" and pickled Okra but does not believe Pickled Watermelon exists and I cannot find it here to prove it). Now I am going to dispell all myth here as Frog legs do not taste like chicken. It is a tender white meat and tastes perfectly like Amphibian. This is still a delicacy in the South and I do not recall having it since I was in Jr High or something back in Oklahoma. So.. come to Louisiana and have frog legs.. and comment loudly.. "Yummm.. tastes JUST like Rana".