The time is near!

Tomorrow I leave for Washington DC to visit my sister and run my first half marathon on Sunday. I am really looking forward to my run. I've worked really hard and am proud that I've made it to a point I think I could actually run 13.1 miles. This coming from the girl who dropped out of jogging class in college!

January 2008 is when I started the Couch to 5k program and I could barely run for 1 minute without keeling over. Well, it took a year and a half, but now I'm running 5 miles with ease.

So, wish me luck! I'm hoping to finish under 2:25. We'll see....

Weekend run and butt cleavage

This weekend, the girlfriends and I decided to run the Bubba Gump Shrimp Run, Forrest, Run 5k through the French Quarter. It is really one of the best races I think. The shrimp pasta and caesar salad following the race are delish and since its Jazz Fest weekend, tons of people show up to run.

We had a great time and I ran my best 5k time yet. The most disturbing part of the whole morning was this....Who wears this to a competitive race. "Excuse me, m'am... Um, I think your right butt cheek just fell out of your shorts. Can you please tuck that back in there. Thanks..."

What a weekend to be in New Orleans!

This was a beautiful and eventful weekend to be in New Orleans. It was the first weekend of JazzFest, the Zurich Golf Classic, the Bubba Gump Shrimp "Run, Forrest, Run" 5 k race, and in general, just wonderful spring weekend!I think our across the street neighbors are a little too into the JazzFest spirit. When we came home Friday, as you walk out on our front porch, this is the image you see. I mean, we are all excited about JazzFest, but The Pot-O-Gold is not the one memory I want to take home from it! In all seriousness, I'm not quite sure why they couldn't scoot the potty into their driveway or somewhere a bit more discreet. (It is for the painters that are working on their house) But, in general, BM and I just thought this was the funniest thing EVER.

Open letter to latte lover

Dear strange lady who happens to live in our neighborhood and is also a coffeeshop customer:

Thank you for being a customer. Yes, we appreciate your business. The $3.45 we get from you the once a month you come in helps support our family. We try our best to make you the most delicious latte everytime you visit our establishment. I am glad you like it most of the time.

BUT, just because you know where we live, you really do not need to pound on our private home's door at 7 pm while we are putting Little Monkey to sleep and tell us how you are disappointed in your latte today. We do not need your opinion at 7pm on our front porch of what we should do to make a better latte.

In reality, it just makes you seem even more strange, and, in general, just kinda freaks us out.

Thank you,

The Monkeys

"Streetcar Named Inspire" cont'd

I've been taking more Streetcar pics for y'all around the city as I see them. Here are a few I have seen recently...(on Fulton Street near Harrah's Casino Hotel)

(Inside Hilton Riverside Hotel)
(in front of New Orleans JCC)(in front of Whole Foods- yes, those are all beer bottle caps)(outside of Superior Grill on St. Charles Ave.)
(inside Astor Crown Plaza Hotel lobby on Canal Street)

Funny story... the bellman at the Astor must have thought I was a tourist and saw me taking a picture. He asked me what I thought that was I was taking a picture of and of course I said a streetcar. I assumed he would tell me most people thought it was a trolley or a cablecar or something, but he said, "oh no, most people ask why we decorate our caskets so beautifully in New Orleans!"

Little Monkey in his Easter Sunday best

Little Monkey had a great time playing with his friends, the triplets, during Easter Sunday dinner. He particularly liked the assortment of toys the triplets' Grandmother had to offer at her house. He immediately picked out this bowling set and Big Monkey decided to teach them all the art of standing the pins up on grassy terrain.

A tiskit, a tasket... Sara made really cute Easter baskets!

I recently discovered Bakerella's blog. She is famous for these cake balls I have been hearing about all over the mom-o-sphere. Her photos are really beautiful and her baking is totally creative. She recently posted this Easter cupcake idea:Photo courtesy of Bakerella blog

Big Monkey, Little Monkey, and I are invited to an Easter dinner tomorrow and I wanted to copy the look as best as I could. So, here is my version. I think they came out pretty good! I could have gone a little lighter on the green and I wish I had brighter color cups, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with them. Hopefully the kids will like them tomorrow!

The Little Monkey's new obsession with all things round...

LM is absolutely obsessed with balls. He wakes up talking about balls, goes to sleep talking about balls, and I'm sure he dreams about balls. He says the word "balls" regardless if there are actually any balls around, and seems genuinely sad due to this lack of balls. I felt so bad for the poor kid, I actually went to Dollar General and bought him a ball today. He was ecstatic!

Obama: Ready or not, here I come!

I am super psyched! I just registered for my half-Marathon in Washington DC next month and I can't wait. I'm totally committed now. There is no looking back. I got my plane ticket and my hotel reservations. My sister is living up there now and we are going to have a great sister's weekend! I'm giddy with anticipation.

Weekends... Gotta love em

Not much going on in the Monkey House right now. Today was absolutely gorgeous and we made the most of it. This morning LM and I took our routine walk around the park with some friends and then coffee at the coffeehouse. Then I headed to the Freret Street Festival with same girlfriends and we had a fun time people watching.

I put sunscreen on my face but didn't think about applying anywhere else and came away with a ridiculous sunburn which is going to look very silly when I wear something with a different neckline. The sun totally knocked me out and I took a long nap and then ordered Chinese food from our favorite, August Moon Restaurant.

(Check out this sunburn. Ignore stain on shirt from Chinese food mentioned above!)

I'll leave you with some cute pics of BM and LM from our trip to the park yesterday afternoon.(I think Big Monkey is looking quite handsome in this pic)

Who knew Grumps was a professional top spinner?

As mentioned before, Little Monkey had a great time with Leenie, Grumps, and Abuelo this weekend while we had our night out in Alexandria. One thing LM loves about going to Leenie and Grumps' house is Grumps' top collection. He has about 30 old timey wooden tops from when he was in elementary school. I've been hearing for years about his time on the professional top spinning circuit (i.e. the schoolyard during recess) but had never seen it first hand. Well, let me tell you, it was pretty impressive. Grumps finally went out and got the right kind of string and gave us all a show. LM loved chasing after the tops and then throwing them across the driveway.

On a side note, I googled "top spinning" before doing this blog post and am quite surprised by the whole underground world of top spinning. Check out this website. The chat forum people are just crazy for top spinning. Kinda weird but I guess there is something out there for everyone!