Lakeview Terrace and Mardi Gras are Stuck in VT

Lakeview Terrace at Mardi Gras [68]Instead of sleeping last night, I stayed up finishing these two videos (note my closed eyes in the above pic).

Watching the snow fall and listening to the plows made me feel cozy and safe. I am not the only one burning that midnight oil, eh plowman?!

Most of these pics are 7 Days staff partying at Mardi Gras (except for those fabulous Things above me who are representing Lakeview Terrace who WON the float competition AGAIN this year).

Seven Days is an awesome bunch of people and I can't get over how lucky I am to work with weirdos I genuinely like. Plus, they party real hard. YEEHAQ@!

Colby is the KING of Mardi Gras.
Dan is a hot bearded gal. His gal was sporting a mustachio.
Ken dares to rub the beasts shutterbug belly.
Here kitty kitty! OUCH!
Kitty sister attacks mime! Good riddance!


Alan is the magic behind the Gras.
His designer muscles are undeniable!
What a pretty Bridget! Where is your pony?




RAR!

Magic Hat Afternoon

What is it about a free jug of beer that makes you want to cancel your plans for the day and sit in the sun drinking the sweet, sweet nectar to your heart's content?

Well, I didn't spend the entire day basking in the bright sun and crisp spring breezes but there was some relaxation plus beer enjoyed.

I've been doing some videos for Magic Hat and one of the perks is the free beer when you leave. I chose a growler of Circus Boy Hefeweizen (YUM!) and even though it was only noon, I wanted to take a swig SO BAD - right there in the parking lot! But I resisted and stored the booze in the Flynn fridge while taking Tracy's high octane dance class.

After last night's dose of intense yoga and 2 hours of dance rehearsal, today's class nearly killed me. All the death defying lunges and leaps - it is so hard to ignore gravity and bounce your body UP in the air repeatedly - the hip thrusts and spins - zowie, I am gonna hurt tomorrow. Pain. Lots of it headed straight my way.

There were some dudes putting cement on the roof next door and I considered giving them the free growler of beer. It seemed like the proper thing to do, hard working people always appreciate a cool refreshing drink when doing manual labor. But I figured cement + booze might not be the best combo and therefore justified my selfishness.

Magic Hat is such a cool factory - sort of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory crossed with Beetlejuice and sprinkled with Mad Max. If you have not gone on the factory tour, by all means, go soon. I have a real fondness in my heart for gigantic, funky industrial spaces, especially ones filled with beer and smelling of wheat.

While creeping around and taking pictures, I marvelled at the magical beer bottle filling process. It was like Laverne and Shirley's opening title sequence (embedded below), or like Wayne's World parody of it, but SO much better!

The beer bottles whizzing along, getting disinfected and filled with the magic elixir in an air tight chamber, the fancy inner-workings of the machines that make it all happen and drop the beer into boxes with delicate metal paws, the never ending walls of beer cases wrapped in cellophane awaiting transport to a supermarket shelf near you. It is exciting, and makes a girl thirsty.

Anyway, where was I? Yes, after dance we had our girl lunch sans Suzanne (sniffle) and then ran errands around town while soaking up sun. The best errand was definitely the bra fitting - girls love to try on expensive lingerie, what can I say.

Then it was back to Suzanne's to eat candy from Costa Rica (thanks Tracy) and FINALLY take a sip of the delicious Hefeweizen which is unfiltered and unfettered. Mmmm. I earned that.

New STVT Vlogs (and Mardi Gras)!

I am too tired and sick to blog much BUT please check out my two new Stuck in Vermont vlogs over at Seven Days featuring Friday's art opening First 50 at Kasini House and the Valentine's Day Blizzard and its impressive effects on downtown Burlington.

I still have to pinch myself every time I pop over to the Seven Days website and see my name on their main page below Freyne Land - that man is amazing, seriously, amazing. To quote Wayne, my cable access compatriot, "We're not worthy."

I could blather on more but I caught quite a chill shooting Mardi Gras today. It is the sort of chill that seeps deep into your bones and makes your fingers ache - or is this frostbite? Ah well, it was worth it for the chance to see the parade from the cherry picker at the top of Church St courtesy of Magic Hat.

What an awesome parade and what a great cause. It is good I only had that one jello shot at the Hood parking lot (courtesy of the lovely House of LeMay) or I might have slipped to my death later when we were blowing in the wind and trying to get out of the path of the wayward Victor's Secret float (gyrating men in lingerie wearing angel wings - could they have been more awesome?) which was too big to get around the corner. And despite this, did I manage to hold my camera steady? Er, sort of, my hands were icecubes at that point.

My teeth are still chattering but it was worth it cause I got to walk the parade path while shooting all sorts of fun footage of Alan and the Bob wearing bright, colorful costumes and riling up the crowd as they led the parade up Church St. Is there anywhere else I would want to be living right now? Well, an empty beach might be nice...but no, you can keep your sandy shores, I love being stuck in Vermont!