The Theatre of the Vampires Ball . We had originally planned to attend the ball as the hooded-cloaked vampires of the theatre as seen in Interview with the Vampire , but the trip was nearly in jeapordy, so costumes were out of the question until last night. I need help finding a costume, quickly. Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the guests this year, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a suitable Anita Blake-inspired costume. I'm not exactly Jean-Claude material. I just don't have the hair for it...

The Big Easy eventually became quite magical, but at first I was far from impressed. Perhaps it was the white pill that helped, or maybe I just needed to get out from behind the wheel, but I was immediately disappointed with NOLA while getting lost on her elevated highways. Once we settled our things into our hotel room, we walked around outside and I found the city to be exactly what I was hoping for. Once the sun dipped below the skyline, we took the St. Charles Ave streetcar onto Canal and crossed over onto Bourbon St. From street corner one there were folks playing zydeco and jazz, and the smell of cigar smoke and alcohol flooded my senses further. We found ourselves on a second story latticed balcony eating an oyster po’boy and puffin on a cigar while watching the magnificent spectacle that is the inebriated human being. A couple of blocks away from our hotel is the Garden District. These homes are mind-boggling brilliance of early colonial American architecture that’s a nice comp...