New Orleans, LA

With 9 sporting events in two weeks New Orleans is hustling and busting. This evening is the LSU game and this town is packed, just packed. Large limos line the streets outside restaurants, streetcars packed and everyone it seems is wearing a LSU something, either a tee shirt or a hat. The excitement is in the air. All while Mardi Gras parades and balls have begun. From the New York Times:

"From Dec. 26 through Monday, the Superdome and the neighboring New Orleans Arena have hosted, or will host, nine sporting events. This includes two college football bowl games, including Monday night’s championship; three Saints games, including Saturday’s playoff contest against Detroit; and four N.B.A. matchups featuring the hometown Hornets.

This confluence of events, an athletic Mardi Gras of sorts, played out all over town. Crimson Tide fans waited for beignets at Café du Monde, while nearby a musician played jazz in a Saints sweatshirt. Lions supporters downed bottles of Abita at Bullet’s Sports Bar. Hotels turned on “no vacancy” signs and a parking garage downtown charged $100 a night.

“We’re going to see our city filled to the brim, to a magnitude beyond what we’ve ever seen, even with Super Bowls,” said Doug Thornton, senior vice president for the stadium and arena division at the arena management company SMG and the de facto director of Louisiana sports."

Read more - New Orleans is the Center of the Sports World

Greeting from New Orleans...it's Carnival time again! Though Mardi Gras day isn't until February 21 this year, 12th night (the feast of the Epiphany) on January 6 is actually the date the season gets started each year. If you've never been to our great city for the celebration, it's a bucket list item everyone should do once. The most congested time is the Thursday through Tuesday leading up to Mardi Gras day (Feb 16 - 21 this year). This is when the biggest parades role and the city hosts over one million visitors.

If you're looking for the experience but a bit less of a crowd, try the weekend before (Feb 10-12), locally referred to as the "first weekend of Mardi Gras". There's still plenty of great parades rolling, the locals are out and about, and we have a fraction of the revelers on that weekend. The photo below is one of the floats from the Krewe of King Arthur that rolls "first Sunday".

Another gem from the first weekend is the Mystic Krewe of Barkus. The name is a play on one of our larger parades, Bacchus. Barkus is a fantastic dog parade through the French Quarter, where the King and Queen are canine as are most of the participants in the parade. The Krewe raises funds for local animal shelters and groups. Below is their official poster from 2011 with the theme "A Broadway Tail: Barkus Brings Down The House". More info at their web site: www.barkus.org.

And keep in mind, the event is celebrated all over southern Louisiana, not just New Orleans. And in the metro area, it's not just in the French Quarter and Uptown. Our friends and neighbors on the West Bank (the other side of the Mississippi River) and in the suburb of Metairie throw a heck of a party too! Happy Mardi Gras, ya'll!!

Have you ever walked or ridden along the bike path that runs from Algiers to Gretna?

It's a great ride, with a spectacular view of the city and the skyline serving as a backdrop to your exercise program. Plenty of people would love to be able to continue their ride into lower Algiers, but haven't been able to do so. That's all changing.

Bids will be taken shortly for the planned extension of the bike and walking path in Algiers. With construction expected to begin this spring and be completed before the end of 2012, the path that currently runs from the Gretna ferry landing to the Algiers ferry landing will be extended all the way to the Chalmette ferry landing on the West Bank.

Plans include benches, water fountains, places for people to clean up after their pets and historic markers that share some of the history of Algiers. There is already a shell path on the top of the levee, but the addition of a 10 foot path and several access ramps along the route will make your walk, run or ride even more enjoyable.

Additionally, the section of the levee that was closed to restrict access to the Naval Base is now open and will be included in the path construction. Just that one change makes the entire path more appealing since it no longer dead ends into a restricted area, which forced people off of the levee and around the base.

I can't wait to see the new improvements as they are completed!

Recent article about the bike path at nola.com

Originally posted at West Bank Living

Another happy client! Look what she had to say....

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AD- New Orleans, LA 12/15/2011

Well, this all started yesterday when I sent my mother a text message and my iPhone changed a properly spelled word that I hardly use 'gum', a fine word, I just don't use it while texting, into 'gym' a word I use with great frequency. Perhaps one of the words that I use the most, not on the same level as "Hi, Me, You, Yes, No" etc... but definitely amongst the most commonly used words in my texting vocabulary.

So what does it mean when my cellphone, or smart phone I guess I should say, determines that I actually did want to use the word that it suggested instead of the word I typed?

Anyways, that gets me to thinking about what's next, I mean we've come pretty far pretty quickly as far as consumer based technology is concerned, but I would like to see it taken to the next level.

( Click the picture for the story )

Now futuristic cars are one thing, and with enough training in computer design, I'm sure most people could fabricate an image of their ideal future car, but what about something much bigger, say when population density becomes an issue... shouldn't be too far in the future.

( Click the picture for the story )

If you follow the above picture and scroll down a little, there's a ~4:00 video about the plan that is actually being set into motion to create floating cities in the equatorial ocean. I won't give it all away.

Or you could skip right to the article, Shimizu Corp and friends plans to build one, I hope I get to take a vacation there one day. If I have to wait till 2030 I guess I have to... but that's only 18 years from now!

Gosh... If I could just go back in time and spell gym properly none of this would ever have happened.

I wonder if anyone is working on anything?