[Judy Patsch]

Its a cold blustery day here, but I guess we're getting about 8 inches of snow back home, so relatively speaking it isn't bad. The city is still basking in the warm glow of the World Champion Saints' Super Bowl victory - the parade is tonight and while it is tempting to stay hunkered down in this warm apartment and watch it on local TV, I'll venture the 11 blocks over to Canal St. to be there in person. I doubt if the cold will keep many away. They are using 12 floats from Mardi Gras krewes which the krewes have kindly loaned for this effort, since there was no time to build special ones. It is hard to believe that Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday is just one week from today, as the purple/green/gold decorations are outnumbered by the black and gold here in the FQ at least. I imagine that after tonight's parade, the switch will be flipped to Carnival again. Thursday night begins the daily procession of parades. I've been in town for 48 hours already and have only taken one trip on the NATCHEZ. The 2:30 on Sunday was cancelled so crew could get home for the game, and we just ran the 2:30 yesterday. That is the only trip scheduled for today also. I spent most of the trip in the dining room visiting with one of the NATCHEZ' legends, Edna James. If you've ever ridden the N., you've probably met Edna in the dining room. She has been with the boat from the beginning, and along with the late Geneva Robinson has been an unofficial member of the Dow family. I'm posting her picture here to jog your memory - you may not remember the name, but you'll remember the person. She, Iola Booker and I were the M&F caterers - a name we gave ourselves years ago when we would be making 3000 finger sandwiches and other finger foods for charters. The letters were related to what a long ago departed F&B manager referred to the 'grunts' in the dining room(in contrast to the sweet young things)... over the January layup a lot of painting was done, the decks are sparkling. New carpet was put in the dining room, but the colors are so similar to the old that it probably is going unnoticed. The chairs were also redone to match the carpeting. But there were no major alterations made, apparently. I haven't traversed the whole boat yet, but here are a few pictures from yesterday. By the way, we have high water, very high for this early in the season, around 14 feet. The boils in the bend are swirling away, as is the eddy along the east bank by Toulouse St.
1) Edna James
2) new carpet and upholstered chairs in dining room
3) at Toulouse St. at 14 ft. river stage, Saints flags flapping briskly

more pix later, this is a very slow connection