Louisiana’s oldest and largest agricultural festival is the International Rice Festival.  Each year, people from across the street and across the country gather in the small town of Crowley, Louisiana, to celebrate the economic and cultural importance of rice to our state.  It’s the main ingredient in many Cajun and Creole dishes.  It’s what grows on several hundred acres of farmland.  It’s Louisiana’s crop!

Interestingly enough, this large festival had quite small beginnings.  In 1927, the first of only two Rice Carnivals was held in Crowley in conjunction with Armistice celebrations.  After 1928, the Rice Carnival was discontinued.  It wasn’t until 1937, a decade after the first Carnival, that the Rice Festival was introduced to Acadia Parish.  The very first Rice Festival was held on October 5, combined with Crowley’s Golden Jubilee.  Needless to say, the festival was a huge success, drawing nearly 35,000 attendees.

Since then, the Rice Festival has only continued to grow.  The festival now attracts as many as 125,000 people per year, with millions of people having attended since its inception.  It’s still held on Parkerson Avenue downtown, yet it seems that new features are introduced each year.  

Today, the Rice Festival is a four-day long celebration full of music, dancing, food, and fun for the whole family. Highlights of the festival include two music stages populated with Louisiana’s best local musicians, a seemingly endless chain of booths serving up delicious Cajun food, two parades leading rice covered floats down Parkerson, a huge section full of carnival rides and games for the kids, contests, cook offs, crownings, crafts, and a car show.

The 78th annual Rice Festival is going on right now, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had!  Don’t miss live performances by Wayne Toups tonight and Charlie Daniels tomorrow night; and be sure to come on an empty stomach and have lots of energy for dancing!

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

Have you ever had a service company to your home to repair something and find out that it really wasn’t “broken”? It probably conjured up ambivalent feelings of joy that it wasn’t something serious and frustration that you had to pay a service call for something so simple.

Before you call the repairman next time, keep these things in mind to see if it is an easy fix:

Disposer not working
Check to see if the reset button has been thrown. It is usually on the bottom of the disposer. If the disposer is making a humming sound, the blades may be stuck. While the disposer is turned off, use a wooden broom handle as a lever to gently rotate the blades. Remove the broom handle and turn on the disposer to see if it works properly.

Air conditioner not working
Check to see if a breaker has thrown on your electric panel. You might need to flip the breaker completely off and flip it back on.

Electrical outlets not working
Electrical plugs in bathrooms or outside, especially on a porch or patio, are many times connected to a ground fault interrupter. The GFI will be a wall outlet and it may be located in the garage. Locate the outlet and reset the button that may have tripped.

Clogged drain
A simple way to correct a slow or clogged drain is to use the water pressure from a garden hose. You’ll need a helper to turn on the water full-blast once you have safely placed the hose in the drain and are holding a hand-towel around the hose to direct the water to the drain. Be prepared to tell your helper to turn off the water when needed.

Whether it’s preparing a home to market or arranging repairs required by the sale, REALTORS® know reputable, reasonable and reliable service contractors. We’re here to share our contacts with you to help make home ownership better.

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

Mmmm, chicken Marsala!  This classic Italian-American dish is one of my all time favorites.  In fact, any recipe that calls for wine is high up on my list!  This version of the dish tastes just as great, but it’s a bit on the lighter side, so you can chow down without guilt.  Plus, it’s made in a slow cooker, which makes it an easy meal to throw together on a weeknight.  Pair it with a Pinot Noir and you’re all set!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped shallot
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 5 ounces each)
• 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• ¾ cup sweet Marsala wine
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons chopped parsley, for garnish, optional

1. Coat slow cooker insert with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the olive oil, shallot and garlic in bottom of slow cooker.
2. In a shallow dish stir together the flour, salt and black pepper. Pound the chicken to an even thickness and coat it with the flour mixture and add to the slow cooker. Scatter mushrooms over chicken and add the Marsala.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours or until the chicken is tender. To thicken the sauce, turn the slow cooker up to HIGH. Combine the cornstarch with 2 teaspoons water and stir it into the chicken mixture. Cover and cook until the sauce has thickened 10 to 25 minutes. Stir in parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

Last month, we heard from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying that after initially opposing the idea of a Dislike button on the site, he had been considering adding the feature for the purpose of allowing to users express empathy for disheartening or upsetting posts.  For a moment, the Dislike button was almost a reality.

However, Zuckerberg seems to have had a change of heart yet again.

The Dislike button still eludes us, but we may be getting a step closer.  This Friday, Facebook users in Ireland and Spain will be testing out a new feature called Reactions, offering a wider range of emotional reactions to a post.  The feature includes six new emotions in addition to the traditional Like: Love, Haha, Yay, Wow, Sad, and Angry.

These specific emotions were chosen based on the reactions most commonly displayed in Facebook comments, according to Facebook project manager Chris Cox.

“As you can see, it’s not a ‘dislike’ button, though we hope it addresses the spirit of this request more broadly,” Cox reported.

Facebook users will now be able to express themselves more dynamically, but will it suffice in place of a Dislike feature?  It very well could; the Sad and Angry emotions specifically seem to be taking Dislike’s place, albeit simultaneously sugar coating it.  I guess some may think “this makes me sad” or “this makes me angry” sounds a lot nicer than “I don’t like this”.

As for the Love, Haha, Yay, and Wow emotions…are they really necessary?  These emotions seem to just be different ways of expressing approval or enjoyment.

I understand that Zuckerberg doesn’t want a dichotomous reaction system where posts either get voted up or down, but is having an array of redundant reactions a good alternative?

The Reactions feature will be making its way to the rest of the world soon after its trial runs in Ireland and Spain. Perhaps only then will we find out whether or not it was a good idea.

What are your thoughts on the Reactions feature?  Do you think it’s a better, safer alternative to a Dislike button? Let us know what you think!

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

“We can complain that rose bushes have thorns, or we can rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
                                                                             –  Abraham Lincoln

Do you see the glass as half empty or half full?  Do you tend to always focus on the negatives, or do you prefer positivity?  

It’s all about perspective.  It’s how you CHOOSE to view your life. 

It’s okay to recognize a problem when there is one, but nothing good ever came from preoccupying yourself with it.

On the other hand, nothing bad ever came from choosing to be POSITIVE despite the obstacles with which you’ve been faced!

Happy Monday (:

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News