The weather has been incredibly beautiful!

And that has been perfect for those fortunate individuals who have come to visit me at Casa durlx... (hehe, I hate when people refer to their homes as "casa something!")



luca returned from the other side (Houston and straight friends) on the 19th and as always it was good to see my good friend again. The next day, Thursday, we did some Quarter touring and then went to the airport to pick up abjr. We did a poor job of reading the arrival time for his flight and got there over an hour early so I spent some of the time taking pics with the new Canon S230 of things like the skylight in the pic above. luca and I also spent some time trying to take a pic of this cute guy without him noticing us and we were total failures at it; the pic was blurry and he noticed us doing it! It was sooo funny! We were so bad at being sneaky!

Anyway, we picked up abjr. and drove into town to my house, where we dropped off the luggage and took a little time to get settled, and then headed off to the Quarter to walk around a bit and then have dinner. As usual, when someone new comes to town, the Napoleon House wasn't available; there was a thirty minute wait. So we ended up at The Coffee Pot, which is one of those places with lots of courtyard atmosphere and decent local food.

The next day, Friday...

...we went uptown to have lunch at the Sake Cafe, a fav place of mine. It's a rather attractive restaurant, feng shuied to the enth degree and they have a really wonderful bento box lunch. luca used chop sticks for what he claimed was his first time, but we wondered at his skill in conveying the food to his lips. After lunch, we did a bit of Magazine Street browsing and then stopped by Whole Foods to take pics since abjr.'s class had worked on an urban retail grocery project last semester. The building that the store is in is about 100 years old and it's an industrial building... the metal beams that hold it up are apparently very interesting if you are into architecture. And.. abjr. is, so this was a bit of a high point.



Then we headed back to the French Quarter so abjr. could take some pics of the Louisiana Bank Building that was designed by Latrobe.



While he was doing that, I ran into two guys on the corner that I used to work with and we dished our former employer mercilessly and joyously: most satisfying. Then we walked around a bit, stopping here and there to look at buildings and talk about them. I must say that it was wonderful to walk the Quarter with someone who knew what all the bits and pieces attached to all the builldings were; abjr. knows his stuff.



Then, we saw this guy in chains, trying to get out of them...



...everyone assumed it was part of his act... I think it probably was, I mean I don't think anyone put him in chains and left him there... he was kind of scruffy, but fairly accomplished at the escape bit, it looked very difficult...


The next day was Saturday...

...and luca drove me to work. (Actually, I went to work willingly, hehe.) Then, he and abjr. went to meet ab's grandma for lunch and a trip around town. During the course of the day, luca's charm really started to work, and the 80 year old woman expressed extreme admiration for him; there was mention of marraige or perhaps a discreet affair for the two of them, but then it was time for her to retire after lunch so luca was left empty handed. He is such a gigalo...

...so the jilted luca and abjr. picked me up from work and we went home to the Marigny. After sitting around for a while, we decided to get Popeyes Chicken for dinner and dine at home, so we went out in the car and found a very suburban outlet to purchase some of same.



Then, we came home and watched a video tape of "The Celluloid Closet" while we ate our cajun fried chicken. Neither of my guests had seen this tape before and they seemed to enjoy it.

Leave it up to Uncle durlx to provide a homo-instructional video for the evenings' entertainment....


We all got up Sunday morning....

...and they left for points east and then north. I went to work... but the idea of a road trip was on my mind... but as you will see, this is not the time.


There are a lot of things going on at work, and details will show up later in this journal.... And my brother, my niece and my Dad will be here this next Saturday afternoon....

....if you are thinking of visiting, you must book soon, hehe! As of this evening, I have guests now for both weekends of Jazz Fest... my sis and her other for one week, and Sue, Bill's sister and her friends for the next... all though the other half of my king sized bed is not booked yet...

You know, all in all it's just another day in paradise!

durlx


--do take a moment to post a comment, I'd just like to know that you are reading this. Thanx.

Bouef Debris. The Mardi Gras wrap-up.

Once again, it took me a while to get to this.

First of all, my camera got lifted on Mardi Gras day as we passed through a crowd on our way home, and with it went all the pics I had taken. It was a bit of a crashing downer; the camera was only a few weeks old and I really hated losing the shots I had taken. Fortunatly, luca was there to say the "there, there now, it's not so bad's" and also, fortunately he took a lot of great shots. But for a while, I really didn't want to look at any MG pics. And I was insanely busy at work all the week after MG; people were tired and cranky and we were busy. There was very little time to do anything until now.

It was a wonderful Mardi Gras! And it was really wonderful to go through all of it with someone who was seeing it for the first time. luca had a ball, and went to a ball! He took all the pics that follow.

Some costumes.

These guys had the most brilliant hand painted body suits!


durlx and the fabulous Michelle.


This guys costume was simple, but direct...


Michelle and Nina!


Robert in the incerdible costume he made for this year!


And Michelle again; she looks like she found her people! hehe!



There were so many great costumes, and over all it was a fabulous Mardi Gras!

I loved Michelle's costume, (don't you?), and I felt that this day she really learned how to make looooove to the camera! hehe!

There were a few times during the weekend when I thought that luca's eyes were going to pop right out of his head, but he handled it all very well. He looked great in his costume, he had a great time and he's talking about coming back next year for MG 2004.

I always try to keep the journal entries down to 5 or 6 pics, so it doesn't take so long to load, but there are more pics available in an album. Click here.

I hope you enjoy the pics. Perhaps you will think of coming for Mardi Gras next year... (so far it looks like luca and zilla will be here!)

Next....

luca will be back next week and ABjr will be flying in for a few days. Very much looking forward to meeting him and getting his take on New Orleans architecture. Two weeks after that, my brother, his wife, my niece and my Dad will be here for a week. My sister and her mate will be here for Jazz Fest again this year and my dear friend Kate and her entire extended family will be here in mid-May to celebrate her mother's birthday.

But that doesn't mean that there won't be a good time for you to come and visit...

...just call ahead, cher.


durlx

Sunday Afternoon.



We had coffee at Robert's with Nina, Michelle and Clint and then walked to the Quarter to George's house for the Sunday Mardi Gras brunch. There were about 30 people there, a very wonderful and witty group; an author, a couple of artists... and us!



While everyone else was busy eating, Nina threw furniture and a few other valuables off the balcony to luca... teehee...


Then we went to do the "fruit loop"; the various gay bars that are clustered together around Bourbon Street. We saw a few cute guys...



...and this kind of pinata sort of thing on a balcony...



...and Robert...




A lovely day so far! We are at the house now taking a break and getting into our tuxedos for the Lords of Leather ball tonight, which should be rather spectacular. Tomorrow I have to got to work, but not for too long...

we are having soooo much fun!

durlx

It's Mardi Gras

It's been a while since I've updated, been very busy with work, which had been good, but left little time to do the journal. So, now it's Mardi Gras and this will be a short update; there will be much more to come over the next few days. It's Saturday night of Mardi Gras weekend and the city is going insane; the really big parades are happening all day and into the night and the city is packed with people ready to party! I had to work today, but I'm off until Monday, so luca (yeah, he's here... hehe) and I are going to the Quarter tonite to party. But before we go, I thought I'd give a little update that covers the time between the last one and now.






The King of the Krewe of Pegasus.

I ended up seeing a parade on my way home last Saturday night; the Krewe of Pegasus. It's one of the smaller kerewes, but the King of the Krewe was no less proud to be on his float. I watched the parade at the starting point and then ended walking almost a mile to get home. The buses can't cross parade lines...



This bus didn't make it!



Sunday Night.



Sunday night the store closed an hour early and we all went to our store Mardi Gras party at the lovely "Original Champagne Room", a wonderfully tacky reception hall that was convenient for everyone and perfectly suited for a work party. The people from work are a natural party crowd, and the pic, which I took with the new camera set on the "night time mode" turned out rather interesting. There was quite a lot of information for the digital camera to process; the laser lights, the strobe lights and the movement, and the cam seems to pic out bits to focus on. It's a good picture of the mood of the party; it was really upbeat and everyone had a good time.




OMG! There was a r@! on Canal Street in front of the Marriott the other morning when I was on my way to work. I have no idea why a 20 foot r@! was there, it just was. It must be one of those Mardi Gras things...


And Now!

We are ready to hit the Quarter, where I will do my best to corrupt luca totally... hehe, he just told me that he is uncorruptable, a "northern alter boy".

bwahahahahaha! They are the biggest sluts!


Stay tuned....



durlx