I've officially decided to run the Mardi Gras Marathon in February. Which of course means I need some motivation to start running again. I got out my photo albums and found some of my favorite New Orleans pictures. Here's a few from some Mardi Gras parades. The first two shots are from a parade Uptown by our apartment on St. Charles. The third is from the Barkus parade in the Quarter. I've never seen so many cats and dogs dressed up before!

It's so much fun to play with marbles! And to play baseball which is what this little guy was doing before the marbles. And before that? A train ride at the park. How fun it is to be two and a half years old!

Thank you to my sweet friend who let me spend the afternoon with her family yesterday. So many fun ones of her two cuties. Here's one to make you smile!

Only in Texas.

These pictures make me smile every time.

One last shot from DC.

Here's a few shots I took while running the Marine Corps Marathon last weekend. No time to stop when you've got 26.2 miles to run! I'm pleased that a few turned out. The marathon went really well. I finished in 4:54:53. Just a few minutes under my goal time of five hours. Lots of great sites to see along the way. Run a marathon sometime and you will feel pretty good about yourself. I've felt like I can do anything all week! I highly recommend it.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C. As we passed through security we were kindly told that the museum would be closing in ten minutes. After a quick stop at the restroom we headed to the dinosaurs. A few minutes later we were done. I managed to snap this quick shot while we were inside though. I felt very much like Ferris Buehler on his speedy art musuem tour. My nephews would have loved this.

Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Built between 1871 and 1888. Located right next to the West Wing of the White House and houses a majority of offices for White House staff. I thought this was very fitting for our Halloween weekend. Looks more like a haunted house to me than an office building.

The First Amendment rocks!