Happy Easter!

Some eggs Al & I dyed at Mom & Dad's yesterday.


Note the hippie peace egg. :D


And here's a few from the last days of Christ, a passion play-type thing in Beaumont.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday season. Here's my 2007 photo calendar:


1. Marquee 2, 2. Bead buddies, 3. CareBears cupcakes, 4. Capitol blue sky, 5. Jeep Makeover 4, 6. Soccer Boys, 7. Bright Aquatic, 8. Laguna Madre sunset, 9. Tequila Monday, 10. My First Halloween, 11. samples, 12. O Christmas Tree

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.


Also, check out my Avery Island photoset from a little day trip we took to tour the Tabasco factory.

Early birthday

My brother Anton and his wife Natalie are moving to Hawaii next weekend so we celebrated our November birthdays early this year.


Al on the grill.


Friends and family. Of course my parents and Baz were there too, I just didn't take many photos . . .


Thanks to my Aunt Net for making us a delicious chocolate cake.




We headed out for the evening.


Maui Joe, a high school classmate and family friend, tattooing his sister-in-law in her kitchen. Joe has 9 surfboards and lives yards from the beach.


Al with some Halloween decorations.




We went to see a band at Antone's for a little while. I like the place but the band was, eh. We still had fun though. :D

What about Buzz Cola?

Caffeine levels revealed

"The Institute of Food Technologists summarizes some recent research on food. All things considering, it should settle some arguments among geeks about the caffination of beverages. 'Caffeine is a well-known stimulant added as an ingredient to various carbonated soft drinks, but which drink contains the most, and how can consumers know? A study in the Journal of Food Science used high-performance liquid chromatography to analyze the caffeine contents of 56 national-brand and 75 private-label store brand carbonated beverages. Caffeine contents ranged from 4.9 mg/12 oz (IGA Cola) to 74 mg/12 oz (Vault Zero). Some of the more common national-brand carbonated beverages analyzed in this study were Coca-Cola (33.9 mg/12 oz), Diet Coke (46.3 mg/12 oz), Pepsi (38.9 mg/12 oz), Diet Pepsi (36.7 mg/12 oz), Dr Pepper (42.6 mg/12 oz), Diet Dr Pepper (44.1 mg/12 oz), Mountain Dew (54.8 mg/12 oz), and Diet Mountain Dew (55.2 mg/12 oz). The authors found that store-brand beverages generally contained less caffeine, and they also suggest that consumers would benefit from having the actual caffeine content labeled on the beverage.'"

No wonder it seemed like Diet Coke was more addictive.

Oh, and about Buzz Cola - the 7-11 version does not contain "twice the caffeine, twice the sugar,” as they say in Springfield.

Port Arthur Mardi Gras - Part II

After being under the weather the last few days, I finally got around to posting the rest of my Mardi Gras photos . . . click through to Flickr to see larger sizes.


Mr. T's Famous Pork-a-Bobs




The only place we saw beads being thrown from a building like in New Orleans and Galveston.


This dog had a neck full of beads by the end of the parades.


First came a motorcycle parade.




Then the Red Hussars alumni drum & bugle corps started off the main parade.








Woodland String Band from Philly.


Boys are ready for beads.


As you can see, it was cold!


One float's music was too loud for Emmy.


Baz had these awesome shrimp beads. He wouldn't give them up, but he did give me some cool gator beads. Plus Nikki gave me all the big ones she was wearing. :P


Al got so many beads . . . probably because he's tall and he kept asking for them.




Gettin' there . . .


Memorial High drummers














Baz's friend from work, aka The Bead Connection. I ended up with one of those gator beads, hehehe.


The Valero float was lit up with lots of neon.


One of the concession stands set up along the parade route.




Al stopped to ask the monk about meditation classes.

Unfortunately I went overboard during the parade and used up all my battery, so I didn't get any shots of Rosie Ledet or Robert Earl Keen. Will I ever learn???