I was lying in bed tonight watching the 10:00 news and was very shocked to hear that Heath Ledger had died. I believe they were saying that it might have been an overdose. This makes me so sad. He was only 28. I just feel so bad that he had to die.

Who ever came up with the concept for The California Raisins?

I enjoyed a healthy lunch at Subway with my husband today. As I sat eating my raisins, (which I substituted in the place of chips) the thought occurred to me...Who ever came up with the concept for The California Raisins? I did some research, and found out that the concept was created in 1987 for a commercial for the California Raisin Advisory Board.

The commercial was such a hit, it was followed by other commercials, TV specials, a studio album, and a cartoon series. The raisins, A.C., Beebop (drums), Stretch (bass), and Red (piano), were in a Christmas special where they did a rendition of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

It appears that this video aired on VH1 at some point. So awesome!

Welcome to the Big Easy baby!

Adam and I recently had the opportunity to go on a trip to New Orleans to a Farm Bureau conference. McPherson county Young Farmers & Ranchers won the trip to be a part of the idea exchange program. Adam was county president at the time they won the trip. The idea exchange booths were set up as part of the convention. The YF&R people of McPherson county worked with an Extension Agent to make up an Ag-Trivia Maze. They set it up at a community Ag event for education purposes. It was a neat idea. At each crossroad there was an Ag-related question with two options. One of those options sent you in the right direction, the other led you to a dead end. They took a model of the maze to the convention, and pictures from the event to share the idea. Adam's plane ticket, hotel and meals were paid for!

We left early in the a.m. on Friday the 11th. We arrived in New Orleans around 11:00. Our suitcases, however, did not. After reporting our missing luggage, we took a limo from the airport to the hotel. My original plan was to clean up a little when we got there, but with no clothes or makeup, I stayed as I was. We decided to explore a little. We had lunch at a little place the limo driver had suggested, called Felix's. After lunch we walked around Bourbon St. and were lured into a bar by a man on the sidewalk and a 3 for 1 advertisement. We spent the rest of the afternoon there. When we first walked in, the obnoxious MC asked where we were from. Of course, our answer was followed by Kansas/farmer/country jokes. In the first few minutes we learned that the DJ was from Newton, and a bar tender coming in later was from McPherson. What a small world! Mitz made friends with some guys who had been fraternity brothers at some school in Florida.

They were a good time. By 6:00 or so we were good 'n' sauced. One last dance, and we found our way to a BBQ joint on Bourbon St. Then, for me, it was back to the hotel. I was happy to find my luggage waiting for me at the front door. I fell asleep around 7:30 and woke up when Adam got back from a successful trip to the casino across the street. I was back to sleep soon after that.

On Saturday we set up the booth and then spent some time walking on the Riverwalk and drinking Hurricane daiquiris. We also went to the Aquarium and saw an IMAX, Hurricane on the Bayou.

We visited Bubba Gump's in the afternoon for Hurricanes, Cajun shrimp and hush puppies. They had a gift store attached where we did some souvenir shopping. Saturday night we were invited to join all the Kansas YF&R at Crescent City Brewery for dinner. More seafood! It was very tasty.

Much of our time on Sunday was spent working different shifts at the booth and walking around collecting crap from other people's booths. We got free hats, watter bottles, key chains, beads...the list goes on and on. Sunday night we attended a Kansas reception for all the Farm Bureau people who were there from Kansas. We ate later at Hard Rock Cafe with a group. At one point we were told that Chris Brown was on his way into the restaurant with a group of 20. They hurried and cleaned and set up several tables. We watched a large group walk from the door to the tables, and there was no Chris Brown. Oh well, it was almost a cool story.

Monday, Mitz and I did some shopping and daiquiri drinking. Our group went out to dinner at Ralph & Kakoo's. I had the best meal of the whole trip there. Of course, more seafood. Although it was good, I was seafood-ed out. After dinner we went down to Bourbon St. for our last night there. We got our Huge Ass Beers to go, and we went! We were in and out of several bars, and met interesting people.

Goldie here saw Mitz's Kansas sweatshirt and started talking Kansas. Turns out he was from Hutchinson, and now lives and works in New Orleans. Work being painting himself gold and standing on corners on Bourbon street posing like a statue, posing for pictures for tourists, and accepting money when he's in a picture. The last place we stopped for the night there was a mechanical bull that Derrek and Adam tried their hand at. They didn't last long. It was pretty hilarious.

Tuesday morning, Mitz, Adam and I went walking to admire the cool architecture and stop at Cafe Du Monte for their French donuts. I don't remember the french name for donut.













We headed to the airport around 12:30 and were on our way back to Kansas.