How My Grand-Fabulous-Daughter Ava Spent Her Easter Vacation (click the pics)

"Agh! You're squishing me!"

"Where's that Easter bunny?!"

"Let's see...white dress...dirt...now, where did I put that froggy?"

"Well, back in my day, we had chairs to sit on."

"Good grief. Are you people done, yet?"

"Go, Speed Racer!"

"Get outta the way, dude!"

"Dad fixed my hair."

"It's all spiky."

"Yeah, I'm cool."

"Look at my teeth!!"

Cyber Insanity

Occasionally, my mind gets trapped in a vortex of cyber insanity contemplating how much of my life occurs out there in cyperspace. I sit at my keyboard and hit keys and little letters appear on the screen. In e-mails, those letters can be a bridge between family and friends, some of whom are thousands of miles away. The little blips of electricity venture out and, somehow, control where I go, how my money is spent and, occasionally, with whom, where and when I eat.

I've reconnected and stayed connected with people I haven't seen or, in some cases, thought about in years. Without my cyber connectivity, I would never pick up a phone to try to coordinate dinner with the several groups of friends, co-workers and relatives that I try to get all in one place one night a month for dinner or one day a week for lunch so that we can stay connected in a non-cyber way.

I've recently gone 99.9% currency free when it comes to my money matters. Every other week someone hands me a piece of paper (if I could get direct deposit, I wouldn't even have that physical connection to my filthy lucre), I drive it to my bank, they give me another piece of paper, I go home and sit at this machine and type in some of those same little electronic blips that I type into friendly e-mails and, voila, my water keeps pouring and my electricity keeps flowing.

Since they put those little debit card boxes at the window, I don't even touch money at Sonic or Jack in the Box anymore. I buy most of my movies, books and music online, I pay for my gas at the pump and for my groceries in the self-serve line and, sometimes, it all makes me a little cyberly insane if I stop and think about it too much.

Don't even get me started on how the job of a legal secretary has changed over the last twenty years because of e-mail, as well as, easily, the most mind-blowing, work place changing cyber invention of the 20th century: the fax machine.

Electricity. Electromagnetic fields. Gravity. Mind. Vortex. Blown.

Blip.

Reminder: Stingaree Festival 2008

Stingaree Festival 2008 is just around the corner (4/18, 4/19 and 4/20). Click here for some links and information.

Note to BG: I hear through the Ransonette/Courville Crawfish Boil Grapevine that you are the proud owner of a Crystal Beach cabin. I'll be looking for you.

Three Sites I Like

I can't remember how I found these. I think Jen told me about the Post Secret site.

• Stuff White People Like

• Post Secret

• To-Do Lists

Another Speed Bump by Dave Coverly

Once again, posted entirely without permission. Maybe I won't get in trouble if I tell you to subscribe to this cartoon here and buy his book here.

Easter pictures are up

Click here to see 2008 crawfish boil and Easter pictures. (The beautiful azaleas are at my Aunt Hazel's house.)

Cousins are funny

Sunday after lunch at my aunt's house, we were all sitting around her living room watching The Princess Diaries, mostly because everyone was too lazy to search for the remote. We had just discussed how annoying it is when someone walks into the room at the end of a movie and wants you to tell them what's going on in the movie.

Nevertheless, having never seen the movie, I had to ask, "I know this movie is almost over and we just talked about asking questions at the end of a movie, but if she's a princess is Julie Andrews the queen?"

My 30 year old male cousin, stood up on his way to the kitchen for a fried chicken drumstick snack and said, "Yeah."

Then, as he passed me, in a sad, barely audible voice, he said, "It's so sad that I know that."

Wednesday Night on Sci-Fi

Tune into the Sci-Fi Channel on Wednesday nights (check your local listings), after American Idol, of course.

I'm such a nerd.

Jason, Josh and Grant

(Pic from Grant's Myspace Page)

My Uncle

My uncle (my dad's youngest brother) who I referenced in the previous post as being so ill that he inspired a possibly supernatural visit from my grandmother passed away this afternoon. I think grandma was really trying to tell me she was here for him. He was in poor health and I'm sure her and grandpa are taking good care of him now.

Grandma, I don't want to be rude, but I've put the top part of that Las Vegas pin in one box and the bottom part in another box. Amateur ghost hunter or not, I'm not ready for you guys to pay me any visits. We'll just chit chat for now, if that's okay with you.

(By the way, I have several funny Uncle Wayne posts on this blog which I'll send you to another time.)

More Weirdness: Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

This morning I was reading a chapter in my Anthony Bourdain book entitled "Food and Loathing in Las Vegas." After I finished the chapter, I walked into my office/den/computer room and something was flashing on my desk.

"Odd," I thought.

I walked over to the desk and the Fabulous Las Vegas pin that Steve and Peg bought for me when they were in Las Vegas last year was blinking like crazy. In the six months that I've had the pin, it has never turned itself on.

I turned it off, went about my business, walked back in that room and the pin was on again. This time, I unscrewed the back and went to work.

My grandmother loved Las Vegas and I was fortunate enough to be with her on her last trip there. My uncle, her son, has been in ICU for the past week and is very ill. Is grandma trying to communicate with me or is it just a coincidence? Perhaps, it's just time for me to take a little trip out west.

Maybe, both.

(By the way, Mr. Bourdain highly recommends you try Bouchon at The Venetian and a few other fabulous restaurants at Bellagio and Wynn.)

Our Group Picture from the Ghost Hunting Class

This is the group picture from the Ghost Hunting 101 class that I took with my sister and cousins at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The class was so popular they had to add another class. It looks like the second class had all the men in it!



This is the second class...



This is a composite of me, my cousin Susan, my sister Bonnie and my cousin Brady trying to take a group picture in the car before the investigation. I'm holding the camera and I am a retard. The third one is pretty good though.


The class was presented by Louisiana Spirits and I highly recommend it. Ghost hunting is like regular hunting except everything is already dead.

The Grand-Fabulous Ava from a couple weeks ago...

Walking with her new toy...



Hanging out outside...



Crazy crawling and her fake cough...

It's Not My Fault

I was supposed to be in New Orleans this weekend, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to leave Beaumont. When I'm feeling sorry for myself, I do one or both of the following: (1) buy stuff; (2) organize stuff.

This weekend, I did both. I reorganized all of my kitchen cabinets (partly because I found where that fucking mouse had set up house, so I threw everything in that cabinet out...Tupperware, Rubbermaid, canned goods, dish towels...everything) and I spent an exorbitant amount of money on cookware, gadgets, utensils, knives, organizer shelves, dish towels, serving platters and canisters.

It's not like I even cook. It's not that I'm a bad cook, it's just that I don't cook. I blame Alton Brown. He makes it all look so damn fun. I have an uncontrollable desire to fry some chicken.

Eliot Spitzer's Favorite Mistake

This is Ashley Alexandra Dupre a/k/a Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro. She is Eliot Spitzer's hootchie of choice. Here is her MySpace page.

My only thought on the matter is this: If I have to pay $30 (!!!!) to fill up my Toyota ($30...a Toyota!!!!), I think it's only fair that a millionaire, hypocrite politician should have to pay $1,000 an hour for sex.