Mardi Gras Season

As I type this, I'm almost all the way through Carnival without having actually gone to a parade. Tonight is Mrs. theskinnyonbenny's parade, so we will go catch that one along with whatever is rolling beforehand.

But that's not to say that it hasn't been busy. This is the time of year where I'm all giddy and loving life, because the weather is warm but not too humid, the flowers are starting to bloom, and I can work, eat, and play entirely outside.

Our season started with the Spanish Town ball, which you may have seen pictured. It is always a lot of fun, and this year was no exception. We brought a full ice chest of booze down that afternoon, and left with a much lighter ice chest in a period of time that felt like about an hour but was probably closer to four. Sharples and I probably took fifty pictures with strangers who liked our mermaid costumes on fat men.

We were smart that night and took a cab downtown. Because mermaid costumes don't come with pockets, we carried no money or ID. Amanda had one of our credit cards in case of some unthinkable emergency. Then, many hours into the party, Sharples and Amanda were outside smoking. Without warning, Amanda was outside smoking and Sharples was ass-over-head in a giant potted plant.

Sharples goes through a few stages of inebriation. He starts out pretty much like normal, but more talkative. Then, he gets to the point where he talks even more, and has an expert opinion on any topic. This sounds seriously annoying, but you really don't notice that because he gets all handsy and kissy, which trumps the other in annoyance. Then suddenly, he's incoherent and has to go home.
There's really no warning for this last part (thus the word "suddenly" in that previous sentence). It just happens, and it is what it is.

So Sharples came out of the plant incoherent. It was late, and we had called our cab driver to take us home. They spotted him, jumped in the car, and headed out with our emergency credit card.

Mrs. theskinnyonbenny and I waited around for a while. When it was clear that they were gone, we went outside and nabbed someone else's cab. Then, our driver made the block, and we let some young couple share the ride with us (and pay for the bulk of it). They were sort of well-dressed for this party, and they weren't lugging an almost-empty ice chest. I'm pretty sure that they were frightened of us.

The next weekend was the dog parade. We recycled the costume from a few years ago where Vanya was Tom Cruise and the dogs were hookers from Risky Business. We went unrewarded on our first go-round, but V charmed Diane Deaton, and we took home the hardware for first place in the costumes this year.

	Risky Business. There's a 30-pic gallery of all different pictures from Mutts this year.

We actually jumped the official parade and walked the route a few minutes ahead of the actual paraders. After that, the humans in our group headed to one car while the dogs and I walked back to my Jeep. Mrs. theskinnyonbenny had taken our bag of junk and our first prize back to the Jeep, so I had no scoop bag when Lily left a soft, stinking, giant turd in one of the yards. We were too far to easily get to the Jeep and back, and there were a lot of other people around, so I didn't feel like I could leave it. All I could think to do was to use one of my socks. I figured it was ruined from walking the streets anyway, so I pulled it off and used it to scoop the hot pile of poo.

The following weekend was parade-free, but we spent all day Saturday sailing. We had 10-15 knot winds with a light chop. I kept the genny mostly furled, and we sailed flat but fast. Had I been out single handed, I would have heeled her as far as I could. I know I could have buried the rub rail in the water and had a roller coaster ride. By myself, I also would have been naked as a jaybird. Maybe one week soon.