I've been keeping busy lately, to the detriment of my blog. Currently I'm learning the ins and outs of the Magento e-commerce system, as well as game development using XNA. The latter, being an altogether new platform for me, is proving more difficult than the former. But we do what we must, even if it seems overwhelming. Speaking of overwhelming, I got the bright idea today to visit the French Quarter for Mardi Gras. Our 4th one since we moved to the area. I'm not sure what I was thinking, because once we got there, about mid-afternoon (our first mistake), there was absolutely nowhere to park that wasn't cost-prohibitive. We thus drove around basically in circles for over an hour while my wife fought off a panic attack and I tried not to hit any of what seemed like 87 billion pedestrians and to navigate the labyrinth of blocked streets. We never got out of the car and ended up beating a hasty retreat ASAP. It proved to be a learning experience; next year we're taking a cab.