Our 4th Anniversary

We had our first party at our place! We figured four years of marriage was a good reason to have our friends over.



Much fun was had.





We even got a couple photos of the happy couple.



Hey, Kyle, how about a nice smile?



Eh?



Sweetie pie!

Covert Package Delivery

Returning home from a nice, long weekend bike ride, Kyle and I arrive home to find this attached to our door knob.


So we look.


Are you serious?


My yearbook came! (I made a yearbook for my kids and forgot to order one for myself.)

I love surprises under bags of putting soil.

Small Talk About the Weather

Egads, is it humid down here. While the fall, winter, and spring months weren't much to speak of (with the exception of there being a lot of wonderfully sunny days), summer is definitely noticeable. It isn't even officially summer yet, and for the last couple weeks, I feel like I am experiencing what we Wisconsinites go through only during the last few weeks of summer: extreme humidity. Even during Wisconsin's most humid days, the evenings offer some reprieve from the heat and humidity. Down here, there is no break. The evenings are just as oppressive as the day. You cannot open the window for some "fresh air" because the only refreshing place is any place that has air conditioning.

Can you believe I just said that? I shocked myself last summer when I wouldn't want to leave Helen's sanctuary of air conditioning. My whole life I've been one of those "live with the weather" types, enjoying salty sweat coming out my pores. Moving down here changed all that. I'm sad to say it, because I realize that air conditioning is quite toxic for the environment and sudden temperature changes are not very healthy for the body, but the fact of the matter is this: if you don't have air conditioning here, you will not get anything done. The humidty and heat combined manage to suck almost all the energy out of your body, so much so, that all you want to do is lay on the couch, a hammock, or under a tree. You become incredibly tired. You move very slowly. You lose your appetite. Your muscles begin to atrophy. You literally start to melt.

Once the AC is on, you feel like a new person and suddenly, you have all this energy. How people lived down here before air conditioning was invented is beyond me. I can understand why they drink so much iced tea though. Caffiene can be a life saver!

The weather isn't yet to the point where it doesn't cool of at night. As you can see, it still goes into the 70s after the sun goes down. But those days are numbered. Having been here for only one full August in my life, I know what the end of summer feels like here, and I am not looking forward to it one iota.

Then my mom and I went to Chaz Fest

Ah yes. It was great music, my mom loved the jazz with our friend Helen Gillet on cello, James Singleton on bass, and others. Naked on the Floor, I think the group was. Well, our car was on the verge of breaking down but we were still having a good time.

Here is the Chaz Fest logo on canvas.




Here's my mom's favorite group.




This is the Hot Eight Brass Band, I think. There are so many here, I get confused.




A nice time was had by all, and I also enjoyed a wonderful piece of crawfish bread (sort of calzoney-like).

My mom and I went to Mardi Gras World

For some reason I thought we should walk there from the quarter. We made it, a few blisters later. However, it was a good reason to use Nicole's camera again! I tried to avoid the flash for pretty much every photo. The camera is great for automatic settings, ISO and other things that I have little clue about. Anyway, here are some new photos of the fiberglass and styrofoam world that they unleash for the parades here.


I'll try and explain where I know what's going on. No clue here.




Or here. You should note that they repaint these each year though.




An obligatory photo of my mom.




And one of me, as much as it pains me.




This looks almost Mayan.




Some lovely sea life.




You can get some idea of the layout of their warehouse. They also have sections for folks to work, and a touristy gift shop where they feed you cake and coffee.




This is some sort of sacrificial new orleans cow. A butcher is sneaking up behind him.




One of my favorites. The pelican is the state bird. We see them all the time here.




Finally, we took a picture of this Katrina memorial art on Convention Center Boulevard. Scrap metal and recycled materials.

Some views with Nicole's new camera

Well, a part of our tax return was well spent, with a refurbished Nikon D60. Here are some pleasant photos showing parts of Audubon park:



Just a general open park scene, nice overhanging oaks.




Ah, what am I looking at? Who knows.




The fountain just north of Magazine St.




This one with the birdy is pretty as a painting, I must say.




Nicole is wondering why she let me have the camera.




A bit of old aesthetic in the park.




As well as some newer aesthetic.



After sitting on the ground for 100 years, the tree grew to my form.

Our bike ride to target

Hello again! For lack of photos, here's another map. On Sunday we decided to bike to target to get some storage containers, and ended up getting a food processor and jigsaw! On the way we stopped at a knitting store and grocery store in the French Quarter and stopped at a cafe in uptown to play a game called Settlers with some friends. Here is a map of our route (total = 26 miles):



View Mid-City to Target in a larger map

My daily commute

Just to distract everyone from that funny picture of me, I decided to show off a typical commute for me, with some placemarks added. You can click on the placemarks or lines for my commentary. Check it out:


View My daily bicycle commute in a larger map

Jazz Fest 2009

There is one woman in this city who blogs about what she sees while riding around on her bike.  There is another woman who blogs about the struggles people face when working with the city government.  Yet another blog documents architectural treasures of this city.  

Maybe we don't post often enough because we lack a theme.  Or maybe we are distracted by other things.

I got a new camera that I'm super stoked about, so maybe I could just post photos.  Sometimes I get a little too wordy.

In any case, here is Kyle, listening to Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

We went to Jazz Fest without shelling out $100, so he's happy.  We saw some big names, but now I can't remember who they were.  Oh yeah, Allen Toussaint was there.  He's played almost all the Jazz Fests.  We tried to see Neil Young, but the crowds were too thick, so we scooted over to another stage where we saw an awesome African dance troupe.  

Allen Toussaint.  Notice the thick crowd.  It was worse when Neil Young was about to come on.

There were tons of cultural exhibitions from all over Louisiana: instrument makers, basket weavers, clothes designers, etc.  Also of note: the food.  You weren't allowed to bring anything in, so you had to buy it.  Initially I was put off by that.  What if I didn't find something vegetarian and garlic-free?  It was all right in the end though.  I found a crawfish strudel!  Here I am in line to get it.

It was pretty good.

Several Mardi Gras Indian tribes were there, too.

 One of my favorite things were the misters.  Not all the men-misters, but the machine mistersto cool people off when it got to be too hot.  They were mounted in the Blues Tent.

See them at the top?

They were in little tents here and there.

The lady on the right is clearly enjoying it.

They were also on fans.

Kyle digs it.

All in all we enjoyed ourselves.  Would we go again?  We're not sure it was worth it all to fight through the crowds.  We just aren't crowd people.  Besides, you can see live, local music for much cheaper any night of the week in this town.