You know the worst part about having a party? Cleaning up after everybody’s gone. And let me tell you, if you’ve never seen the mess left behind after the Carnival celebrations in New Orleans, you’ve never really seen a mess at all! There’s trash everywhere. Especially in the French Quarter.

If you know me, you know I’m crazy about pancakes. I obsess over them. I dream about them. Yet, somehow I totally forgot that February 24 was National Pancake Day!

They picked a great name for the end of Mardi Gras: Fat Tuesday. After eating all that King Cake on Monday, I was feeling pretty fat! But that wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying the last day of celebrations.

It all started with King Cake. I was talking to Woody the termite, who is an expert on Cajun cuisine. He let me know that you can’t eat King Cake after Mardi Gras is over. You have to wait until next January! So I decided to eat as much King Cake as I could on Monday. And I made myself sick.

Man oh man, this mantis is exhausted! Who knew that there were so many Mardi Gras celebrations and parades? There are over 200 of them! I’ve been doing my best to go to every one of them. But I can only do so much. Luckily, most of the best parades run near the Insectarium.

Ever since I went to a New Orleans Hornets game, I’ve been in a basketball mood. I’ve been a huge fan of the game ever since I started watching Tiger basketball back in Memphis. These days I want to play all the time. Luckily for me, the Big Easy is full of great hoops action. Even here at the Insectarium, the games can get pretty intense.

When it comes to NBA hoops, I have one simple rule: I always root for the insect team. That’s why I was totally psyched to sneak out of the Insectarium and catch a New Orleans Hornets game with my pal Atlas the leafcutter ant.