I'm a steel magnolia (that's a tough Louisiana girl) who loves CSI Miami. DuCaine all the way! I actually DO collect guns, and spend most of my spare time at the firing range. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who spoils me rotten and feeds my gun habit!

You Know You're from Louisiana When...

- Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside, even in December.

- You reinforce you attic to store Mardi Gras beads.

- You don't look twice when you see pink flamingos in yards of nice subdivisions during Mardi Gras.

- You save newspapers, not for recycling but for tablecloths at crawfish boils.

- Your ancestors are buried ABOVE the ground.

- You drink Community Coffee, have tried Starbucks, but don't see what all the fuss is about.

- You take a bite of Five-Alarm Chili and reach for the Tobasco.

- Every once in a while, you have waterfront property.

- You sit down to eat boiled crawfish and your host says, "Don't eat the dead ones," and you know what they mean.

- You don't learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a National Holiday.

- You push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads.

- Little old ladies PUSH YOU out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads.

- You believe that PURPLE, GREEN, and GOLD look good together.

- Your last name isn't pronounced the way it's spelled.

- You know what a nutria is but you still pick it to represent your baseball team.

- Your town is LOW on the education chart, high on the obesity chart, and you DON'T care because you're NO. 1 on the PARTY CHART.

- Your house payment is less than your utility bill.

- You know that Tchoupitoulas is a STREET not a DISEASE.

- Your grandparents are called "Maw-Maw" and "Paw-Paw"

- Your Santa Claus rides an alligator and your favorite SAINT is a football player.

- You cringe every time you hear an actor with a Southern or Cajun accent in a "New Orleans-based" movie or TV show.

- You have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm.

- You're walking in the French Quarter with a plastic cup of BEER.

- When it starts to rain, you cover your BEER instead of your head.

- You've eaten at one or more of these restaurants, AND know how to pronounce them: Prejeans, Tu Jac's, Gallatoire's, Ralph & Kacoo's, or Mulatte's.

- You have crawfish mounds in your front yard.

- You give directions and use words like "uptown," "downtown," "backatown," "riverside," "lakeside," "other side of the bayou" or "other side of the levee."

- You refer to a geographical location "way up North," you are referring to places like Shreveport, Little Rock or Memphis, "where it gets real cold."

- You don't worry when you see ships riding higher in the river than the top of your house.

- You judge a po-boy by the number of napkins used.

- The four seasons in your year are: crawfish, shrimp, crab, and King Cake.

- You "wrench" your hands in the sink with an onion bar to get the crawfish smell off.

- You cringe when people pronounce the largest city in the state as "Nawlins," because only TOURISTS call it that!

- You know those big roaches can fly, but you're able to sleep at night anyway.

- You assume everyone has mosquito swarms in their backyard.

- You realize the rainforest is less humid than Louisiana.

- You discover that you can get a sunburn through your car window.

- When out of town, you stop and ask someone where there is a drive-through Daiquiri place, and they look at you like you have three heads.

- You call tomato sauce "red gravy."

- You fall asleep to the soothing sounds of four box fans.

- No matter where else you go in the world, you are always disappointed in the food.

- You get on a bus marked "Cemeteries" and dont think twice.

- Your first sentence was "Throw me something mistah" and your first drink was from a go-cup.

- You have a parade ladder in your shed.

- You shake out your shoes before putting them on.

- You eat sno-balls instead of throwing them.

- You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Louisiana.

- You meet someone for the first time they tell you their entire family tree, and somehow you are related to their family.