We cruised by a store called FishLand today.

Me: “So, they sell, um, all fish at FishLand?”

D: “Yeah.”

Me: “Like halibut and tuna. Fried or blackened.”

D: “No, they sell fish as pets. It’s a pet store.”

Me: “A whole store dedicated to pet fish instead of a fishmonger. Okay, then where’s HamsterLand?”

D: “Yes, because there’s a market for rare, tropical hamsters.”

And then I dissolved into stomach-folding laughter imagining a guy in a FishLand uniform running through a South American jungle after a startled and seriously psychedelically-colored hamster.

The Sacred Pow and her Runner at Krewe du Vieux 2011 © Michael Homan

Here I sit in a friend’s living room in New Orleans with a few moments to myself. A rare luxury these days.

When things happen in my life, they tend to happen all at once.

1) The Packers won the Superbowl! It all happened so fast – we went from possibly wild card to laying the smack down on the Giants to beating the Bears to making it into the playoffs to beating the Eagles and the Falcons (?!). And then another epic meetup with the Bears in Chicago where we all know JAY what CUTLER happened. And just like that we were in the Superbowl and won it. Tada! Utter disbelief.

None of this has been given any time to sink in because of

2) Some big news I will drop next week. No, I am not pregnant, dear aunties of the world whose ears perk up each time I place the words “big” and “news” in the same sentence.

3) First the Superbowl and now massive labor protests. On, Wisconsin!

Pro-Labor protests in Madison (CC Image courtesy of Lost Albatross on Flickr)

The Cheesehead Intifada, The Velveeta Revolution, The Asiago Agenda is going down in Madison and all over Wisconsin. Cheesy jokes aside, this quick post can do no justice to the gigantic worker protest in my state and its implications for public- and private-sector employees’ right to collective bargaining nationwide. What is at stake here is fair, living wages and benefits for state employees as well as their right to organize together for better contracts. It’s also about our long-term quality of life and services as a nation, which are at risk thanks to short-sighted, stop-gap measures that are politically-motivated and do not even begin to really trim the fat. For as the saying goes, “Pay teachers, cops, etc. as if they’re amateurs and incompetents and amateurs and incompetents are the only ones who will take the job.” Yes, everyone must make sacrifices in this economy, but why are the targets inevitably the people who can least afford it and not the people who broke our economy in the first place? What about Wall Street and parties who got significant tax breaks paying us back?

Thanks to First Draft (hugs and smooches to Scout, who spent days in the Capitol and rocks so hard!) and gl33p for working hard to keep us informed this past week. Check out photos from my friends Plankers and Jon Miner (when he gets around to posting them). And you go on with your bad self, Charles Woodson!

4) And the whole reason we’re in New Orleans: Krewe du Vieux 2011. The 25th anniversary of the krewe and parade. And, boy, were we 25 years Wasted. The Krewe de C.R.A.P.S. theme this year was 25 Years Of Running From Bullshit and we channeled the spirit of the Pamplona encierro as well as San Fermin en Nueva Orleans to honor a quarter century of running from the crap heaped on New Orleans by politicians at all levels.

That’s all I’ve got. The pictures will do the talking. Please do me a huge favor and put links to your KdV photos in the Comments’ section.

Happy Mardi Gras, y’all!

February 6, 2011, 22:10 EST – @maitri: “We won the Superbowl, Packer nation! The Lombardi trophy goes home! Titletown! Aaaaahhhhahahahaha! LOVE LOVE LOVE!”

Packers quarterback & Superbowl MVP Aaron Rodgers with the Lombardi Trophy (thanks for the picture, Blair!)

That is all. I am going to be in bed for the rest of the week watching the highlights reel over and over again.

Light posting ahead. A small battalion of the Packer Nation is upon us tomorrow for this weekend’s great, green and gold cheesapalooza ahead of the Superbowl. For the record, my house is going to sound like this for the next few days, ya hey dere. I love my people!

Except that no self-respecting cheesehead drinks Budweiser.

As is customary prior to a Big Game, fans exchange paeans, love songs and war chants penned and/or updated especially for the occasion. And now we have the internet to help hasten this pre-game soundtrack. Here’s a selection of what’s making the rounds on the cheesetube.

This ain’t a diss comment, Lil Wayne, but it’s green and GOLD. I know, I know, it’s a freestyle over Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow.” And you worked a nice, little, um, scatological Najeh Davenport reference in there. It’s all good. What matters is you’re a Packer fan and you’re from NEW ORLEANS. Peace.

Butch Vig and Duke Erikson of Madison band Garbage have updated Go Pack Go! I LOVE the new video. Remember, kids, Jesus drinks Old Style!

Oh, gosh darn it, don’tcha know, I’m a cheesehead, baby, the pride of Wisconsin! Somebody pass the cheese curds.

And, just in case we forgot:

GO PACK GO! Wooooohooooo! See you on Tuesday!