Ah Mardi Gras.  How I love you.

Yep.  It's time again.  Time for 2010 to welcome the "fat Tuesday."

Be sure to investigate the link in the calendar of events section in order to check into all that is Mardi Gras this year.  The weather is clearing up (as I type this the sun is shining), and tomorrow is projected to be top-notch.

Mardi Gras is one of my favorite times of the year on the Island.  But I'm curious.  What's yours?

Whoa.  Where did the past month go?  I remember New Year's Eve and watching Matt Pelz haul @$% through the East End like a crazed maniac at 2:10am (he still claims he doesn't know why - or where - he was running), I remember being thrilled that our electricians started work at the new shop (we can finally say "we've found our electrician" in Will Downey of West End Electric, and that says a lot because Mikie is pretty doggone skilled at electrical work).  I remember being happily filthy after unloading our first container since Hurricane Ike.  I remember feeling overwhelmed by the kindness of our friends and family calling, texting like crazy and popping in to check in on Mikie for his 3 day "vacay" at UTMB and being reminded of how lucky we really are to have the things that matter - which really aren't things. 

I remember freaking out that our second container since Hurricane Ike decided to come in about 30 minutes after Mikie got out of surgery (when it rains, it pours, right?) and wondering how in the bloody hell was I going to get this thing unloaded - and then was rescued by the Willthing, Jhonny, and  HLPs Matt and Eddie who I cannot thank enough for being such awesome friends. 

I remember the day Mikie was released from the hospital and got to come home and how excited the dogs were to see their Daddy - and to get back on a regular feeding schedule.  Priorities, people.

I remember the day our friend walked into the shop and I took one look at his face and knew he and his lady were pregnant.  I was so stoked for them and even thanked him for fighting the temptation to post such glorious news on facebook (which I think should be changed to "hijack-and-hack-your-face-off-book" because enough already - what do the hackers that keep invading my account hope to gain by sending fraudulent youtube videos to all of my contacts over and over and over again??!?!?) only to find out that he did, in fact sortof already let the cat out of the bag via facebook and I might have known that had I not been hacked again that day.  Silly me.  

And I remember the day that Michael and I were standing in our house downstairs with the wind howling around our ankles.  We looked around at the place, looked at each other and said "what the heck are we doing with this place?!" and decided then and there that it's time to move on.  In a few weeks, we'll be adding to the for-sale housing stock.  We're certainly not going far - perhaps somewhere downtown?  For sure we'll find ourselves this side of the causeway... 

And I remember the day I realized "holy crap - it is almost the end of January." 

That day was today.  Beach Revue (May 15th is going to come REALLY quick), a March grand opening at the shop (whaaaa?!?!?!), local elections, parking meter debates (ugh). 

Kinda makes you want to hit the pause button every once in a while. 

I lost a big piece of me this week.  Well, i lost a small piece of me.  Last thursday night, after much complaining to the Lady Culpepper and a call to one of our personal doctors (Katrina), we went to the hospital.  We get to the emergency room and they make me lay on a gurney that goes in and out of a doughnut that they refer to as the ct-scan machine while they pump me full of some drug that gives me hot flashes and make me feel like i'm peeing myself.  Fun.  Lets go back to the ER.

After a few hours of sleeping in the ER while pantamiming a pretzel, we were informed that I had an appendacitus append... my appendix was broken.  After they informed us that the only remedy was to rip the appendix from the binding of the book that is labeled M_F_CULPEPPER.  Here's about how the next conversation goes:

Doctors walking in on two pretzels sleeping: You have appendecitus.

Pretzel with problem:  Ok when do we need to come back?

Doctors: You don't need to we're going to operate right now.

Hot Pretzel:  You're going to take him right now?

Doctors: No, we're going to let you sleep like pretzels for another 8 hours and we'll operate on him in the morning.

Pretzel with problem:  Thanks so much.

In the recovery room, Adrienne came in to see me and said that the doctors said that everything went to plan.  After two days, a seizure, and a self inflicted enema, I was going home.  Now here i sit with time to blog and no excuse not to.

Oh yea and the missing piece we were told was cut up and sucked out of my body.  One less thing to donate to science I guess. 

Thank you honey for being my wife.

So last weekend was plenty cold, huh?  My lady friend and I tried to make all the necessary preparations we could in order to combat the frigid nature that seized the Island.  We let certain faucets drip, including our outside hose bibs (which in turn created wondrous contorted ice sculptures).  We made a rather feeble attempt at covering plants (but I wouldn't let my lady place any substantial blankets or quilts outside for fear the bums might "shop").  We let the hounds sleep in the main part of the house to stay cozy.  And.  We made sure to offer accommodations to the Culpeppers (who may as well be camping at their house).

Thankfully, we ended up problem-less.  In our house.

Briefly, the two houses next door to us are owned but are not habitable since the storm.  In fact the owner has hardly shown herself since Ike.  To our surprise Saturday afternoon, we heard a running water noise coming from under our house.  I was immediately alarmed and walked outside around the side of the house expecting to see busted pipes.  I did find busted pipes.  Just not on our house.  The house next door had a main pipe that busted and it began flooding all under our house as well.  I later noticed that the next house down also had a busted pipe.  And a mini-geyser shot up into the air.  Now, my initial shock was the fact that the two houses had water running to them at all.  As I mentioned earlier these houses have not been lived in since Ike

After a few moments of panic I grabbed my industrial strength water meter key and went hunting for the meters.  And if anyone has never hunted water meters in this town let me tell you this, you're lucky if you find one at all (at least from personal experience).  You're better off grabbing one of those Y shaped water finding sticks and letting it lead you.  But I found them.  Finally.  And after struggling for several moments I conquered the leaks and shut off the meters.

Did anybody else find any frozen adventures last weekend?

Ahh, life in the frozen tundra...  You know, I grew up in Northern Virginia.  It gets quite cold there - it often snows and freezes.  As a kid, though, I remember walking to the bus stop in the snow - in flip flops or wearing a tshirt.  Granted, my parent's house, the bus, and the school were all sufficiently heated so the walk in the cold really wasn't that bad because (1) I was coming from and going to heated places, (2) it wasn't more than 10 minutes and (3) when it's cold, you walk fast, blood pumps, you don't freeze - it's the circle of life. 

The reason I must bore you with this bit of background information is because I'd like to think that I do have a generally reasonable understanding of what "cold" is.  Let me say that the past week on the Island has been really. freaking. cold.  The dogs' water bowls froze.  Two nights in a row.  The bowls were inside our house.  Yeah.  Cold.   

Anyhoo, my point is that there are plenty of things to do on the Island even when it's cold, and there's an especially fun one coming up this weekend - the first annual Yaga's Chili Quest. 

Brought to you in part by Fit To Run, there's a morning 5K run/walk (bet that'll warm a body up!) that starts at 10am at Float on Seawall - the $25 registration fee will get you in the race, an event tshirt, chili sampling cup&spoon, souvenir event cup and entry in some drawings.  (You don't have to enter the race to go to the chili cookoff though, so no SWEAT - get it!? - if you're not into that!)  Plus, all net proceeds go to Galveston County children's charities!  The part I'm most excited about is the jalapeno eating contest.  Plenty of heat there.  I wonder if anyone will be bringing that special chili with that Guatemalan pepper grown by mental patients...

So stay warm out there, jump around, perhaps take a shot of whiskey now and then as my Grandma ("Lokie" as we call her) would have us do after an afternoon playing in the snow - accompanied by the loving reminder "this will warm you up...  but don't tell your mother!". 

Last week, my lady friend and I paid a long overdue visit to Galveston's bigger sister New Orleans.  NOLA is commonly known as the Big Easy, mostly because during the prohibition era the town festered as one exquisitely large speak-easy.  You see, the Feds had "difficulties" enforcing alcohol sales during this time.  Oh well, huh?

Since I moved here in 2005, I've heard that Galveston is at times referenced as the Little Easy.  Whether or not there's any real merit to this or not is left to be determined.  Or proven for that matter.  So I will now make a quite random attempt to do so.

1.  A friend of mine from New Orleans has stated that Galveston is basically a mini-NOLA.  This is probably my best argument.

2.  Both NOLA and Galveston demonstrate devastatingly handsome examples of some of the finest architecture in the country.  This again is not proven.  Strictly opinion driven.

3.  Tourism is the salt in the water.  Did you get that?  Or is it too esoteric?

4.  Mardi Gras celebrations.

5.  Hurricanes.

Now.  I leave it to you good people of the inter-web.  Speak up.  Let me know why else Galveston may justify itself as the Little Easy.

Mikie and I had the tube on last night while fading off to sleep and something that came on jarred us both into vivid consciousness - a NEW, somewhat-slightly-similar-but-totally-and-completely-like-nothing-you've-ever-seen-before blanket hybrid product!

I think we all see the hilarity, and I'll admit it - the simple genius - in the one that started it all, the Snuggie.  The marketing folks over at the Snuggie factory seem to be running a low-mud-sling campaign against the common blanket and I can appreciate that: "...Blankets are OK, but they can slip and slide...".  The IBC idea-incubator has even discussed the idea of a Snuggie pub crawl, and with this weather lately, I wouldn't mock anyone wearing extra layers - especially smart ones with sleeves.   Apparently though, the very same crack team at Snuggie Inc. already beat us to that idea and is proudly suggesting it on their site...  Well, good for them. 

I couldn't believe my eyes, though, when a few months ago we were on a plane - I was thumbing through the in-flight magazine and came across this:

The Slanket.  Whaaaaaa!?!??!  And, these guys want $32.99 per Slanket!  In these difficult economic times, it would seem that the buy-one-Snuggie-get-one-free-for $19.95 would be the trend-setter on price, but apparently Slanket must just think "their fleece don't stink".  (They do offer a cute pirate design and seem to have many more colors to choose from than the Snuggies currently do...)  Should Snuggie watch their fleece-covered backs?

Until last night, we'd have said nah.  But, just like Texas deregulated the monopoly on the electricity industry, America has apparently declared war on the blanket-hybrid-industry fat-cats sitting around in their warm, cozy offices and has sent them a message: Americans simply don't have enough choices when it comes to synthetic-fiber-generated warmth on the couch.  Let free-trade freedom ring. 

Enter the "Original Dreamie".  She brags to be "a top sheet, a bottom sheet, and a pillow pocket all in one". -ahem-  Forgive me, but isn't that a sleeping bag?!?!?!? 

Seriously, what is happening here?  The video on the homepage even has the nerve to take a jab at a product that looks suspiciously like a Snuggie by suggesting with distain "the Dreamie is not a sheet, better than any blanket, and not one of these (insert picture of an overly frustrated simulated snuggie-like-product user here)!".

I'd like to know from you readers what your take is on these things.  Do you already own one of these fine products or were you thinking of purchasing one as a gift for a friend or loved one?  Do you share my shock at the veritable smear campaign the Dreamie has chosen to run against the Snuggie?  Is the plastic appliqued "Slanket" label on the sleeve really worth the extra $13.04?

In the interest of full disclosure, one of our favorite Christmas gifts this year was a Texas A&M collegiate snuggie from Will and Ashley, so I admit we may be a bit partial.  (We also were the excited recipients of some fantastic socks from Ed - do you see the trend here?  Our house is pretty flipping cold!)  But I'll be a monkey's uncle if I can't enjoy a snack with my hands free while staying warm at a movie.