Elsa called and she wants to take over NOLA

If you have not heard about Sneaxmageddon(sneaux=snow for you non Cajun types) that has been crushing New Orleans for the past two days, you must not own a television. New Orleans, and the rest of the state, reached record breaking temperatures this week causing ice and snow in many areas. My northern friends were laughing because this would be nothing for them but for the Crescent City, this was almost as bad as a hurricane. Our infrastructure is so ancient, 300 years this month, that when it gets cold, things break and we do not have the materials to repair anything. We're still under a boil water advisory until probably tomorrow and now that pipes have started to thaw, piped are bursting under raised houses and a friend just informed me that one plumber listing is 500 people long. Good luck.

Despite all that, New Orleanians are forever resilient and we are always looking for a party no matter what. We managed to get out of the house last night and up the road to one of our favorite neighborhood places Cava. I told my partner we were "blue hairs" since we sat down at 5.45 to eat dinner and would be home by 6:30 - that did not exactly happen. Cava has delicious food and Danny the owner is always around to seat you and strike up fun conversation with you. We normally order a special cocktail for dinner from a very creative list but discovered from out waiter that the list was gone. He had no idea why but when Danny sat with us later, he explained what had happened. Danny used to work at the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt hotel many years ago so he learned how to bartend. He stepped in at Cava last week when a bartender was out and discovered that while he could provide the basic drinks to service the majority of the customers, each time they ordered off the fancy cocktail menu he would get backed up because he was not familiar with the composition. So, he made an executive decision and tossed the cocktail books in the trash and got caught up on drinks he could make. Not to worry though, a new listing is coming back shortly and the cocktails will probably be a bit easier to create. We were given the most wonderful dessert as a consolation price and you can defintely tell it is Carnival time.