Surprise! You Got Old!

So, tell me if I'm misinterpreting here, but it seems someone turned thirty!

All the Prudhommians (except Jen who lives up in Ohio), their spouses, and offspring made the trek down to NOLA this past Saturday to attend BDaigle's surprise 30th birthday party. Burt's actual birthday isn't until the 28th, so kudos to Melissa for choosing a date that was sure to arouse no suspicion on his part. The mayor, first lady, Alex, and I all rode down to the big city together in the Vue (which is finally out of the shop *yay!*). Now, I love a surprise party... um, let me rephrase that... I love a surprise party where the honoree is actually surprised. This was one of those. I videotaped the big reveal, and I love Burt's reaction, but the "classic Alex" moment at the :53 mark is pretty good, too. If you listen closely, right after Burt says, "I wasn't expecting this!" you can hear my dear husband say, "That's kinda the point." Sorry, ladies, he's taken.

The party was a ton o' fun. Lots of delicious food and an impromptu concert on the back deck by The Rockers (a.k.a. the Little Man Clan and Noah). I do have video of this spectacular to be uploaded at a later date. I know...the anticipation is killing you! Well, in the meantime, amuse yourself by watching a little movie I put together of Burt's celebratory event.



Happy birthday, Burt! We love you!

The party was great but even better, Mom and Dad had sprung for a hotel room for Alex and me. This was very nice as I was, apparently, the only person to over-imbibe (damn Melissa's beautiful but oversized wine glasses!) at the birthday celebration. It was nice to only have a few blocks to traverse before I could sprawl out on a bed and beg Alex to go find me a Diet Coke. The next morning Dad and I (miraculously for me) got up and went to mass at St. Ann's. Turns out that the 9:30 mass is the children's mass, so there was a lot of off-key singing by the children's choir. This was forgivable and cute since they're kids. But we had to sit behind some chick with an LSU shirt on sporting the slogan "A Southerner's dream, a Northerner's wish" or maybe it was the other way around. Whatever. I had to pray really hard for forgiveness 'cause I rolled my eyes and threw up a little in my mouth when I read it. Maybe they're referring to north Louisianians. I think that's the only way that particular slogan is believable.

Afterward we headed back to the hotel where the baby Jesus had performed some divine intervention, as Alex was not only awake, but had packed the suitcase. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you The Miracle of the Sleep Inn! Then, we headed down to Russell's Marina Grill in West End for some grub. Burt and Byron met up with us there. I loooooove Russell's! I hoovered down two eggs, two pancakes, two pieces of sausage, and two pieces of toast. My hungover tummy was sooooo happy! We had a good time visiting, especially with Burt whom I miss desperately. Ah well, all the more reason to visit NOLA, right?

After brunch, we piled back into the Vue and hit the bricks for Lafayette. My body was cursing me the whole way, and I was so tired I actually tried a RockStar energy drink to try and wake myself up. What a rip off! It tasted like crap and didn't give me a buzz at all. When we hit our little hovel in Lafayette, I was ready to curl up on the couch, but oh no! The Zandy had other plans. You see, a few weeks ago, Ted and Molly offered us a free BBQ grill. Apparently, there was some bad customer service from John Deere, and they tried to make up for it by giving Ted a free grill which he then offered to us because he doesn't like cooking with gas, and, apparently, at Burt's party Alex had asked Ted if the offer was still good to which Ted replied, "First one to get to it, gets it!" Well, this must have set off Def-Con 5 with Alex. The thought of missing out on a free grill sent him into a flurry of activity when we got home that involved me calling our friends Greg and Clelie to see if they wanted our old grill and calling Ted and Molly to see if we could come pick up the free grill. By this point, I was draggin' some serious *ss, but I bravely set off with him to Greg and Cle's to drop off the old grill. Cle offered me wine. How could I refuse? It was a California red for goodness sake! I couldn't be rude. With a slight buzz coursing through my already hungover and exhausted physique, we headed over to Ted's to pick up the grill. We pulled it off without a hitch, and for my fortitude I was rewarded with Cane's chicken fingers. Finally, it was back to the hovel, where I inhaled my Cane's takeout and stumbled off to bed shortly thereafter. All in all, a great weekend. I got my drink on, and Alex got a new grill. For now, the Mottrams are a happy bunch. Stay tuned!