So I only left like 12 days ago, but I am so happy to be going home tomorrow. Monday is Labor Day, so Matt doesn't have to work, and he is off every Friday. Plus I haven't started my new job yet. So we're heading to Shreveport (I'm leaving earlier than him, because I don't like to drive in the dark if I don't have to).
We will be celebrating my dad's 62nd birthday while in town. In preparation I went to the French Market and bought him some pralines and a slice of Tiger Bark fudge. Then I ordered him a Doberge cake from Maurice's in Metairie. It is half vanilla and half praline. I guess I feel like Dad wants to celebrate this birthday with sweets...
I also had lunch with Burger at Tulane today. Two weeks in NOLA, two lunches with Burger. I think we have a good thing going. I got a text message this evening that read "I just shook Ron Paul's hand." I think he is enjoying college.
I will be spending next week in Tyler with my sister. I haven't seen her house yet, so I am pretty excited. She has a pool! Another plus is that Jenny and Derek live there. Should be a fun time.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
You can let your hair hang down. New Orleans is a party town!
I am officially a New Orleans resident. I guess that's a lie. I am a resident of River Ridge, LA - which is really just Harahan. The movers came at 7:45 on Friday August 21st. After hours of packing and loading we all headed out. Ellis rode with me. She slept on a blanket in the passenger seat the WHOLE time. She was such a good girl. Walter rode in Matt's passenger seat in his new carrier. The drive was more adventurous that we wanted. We made our one stop in Opelousas at my favorite gas station - only because the Citgo on Tech Drive is no longer a Citgo. I got out of the car and went to check on Walter. Matt looked worried. He told/showed me that Walter's eyes were really scary looking. It was as if they were rolled back in his head kindof at an angle. Well, I freaked out! I called Sarah (my vet) multiple times until I got to talk to her. A couple of days earlier Sarah gave me some sedatives for Walter so that he would not cry all the way to NOLA. Apparently, when the sedative is working a cat's third eyelid will come up (or something) and it looks really freaky. Too bad she didn't tell me that ahead of time. So with reassured minds we continued on. We didn't get to our apt until around 10pm. By that time we were so exhausted that we just went to sleep (on the air mattress that we brought). The movers came at 7:30 Saturday morning and unloaded everything. They were done well before lunch. I have spent the last week unpacking/organizing. All boxes are unpacked and everything is almost completely organized. All that is left is a little decorating. I have lots of pictures to hang up.
Since being here Matt and I haven't done too much. A few highlights:
Reginelli's Pizza
9 doors
Free movie rentals in our apartment office
Dishwasher
Cooking almost every night
DVR!!!
SO many walls!!
Temperature in the high 80's, low 90's
Stuffed Sno Cones
Picture Time!!
After moving stuff in Matt and Ellis were worn out!
I finally got to unpack all of my beautiful Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick pots and pans.
My kitchen is so tiny, yet so cute!
I miss Shreveport very very much, but I am enjoying my new home with all the walls and closets and new places to discover.
Since being here Matt and I haven't done too much. A few highlights:
Reginelli's Pizza
9 doors
Free movie rentals in our apartment office
Dishwasher
Cooking almost every night
DVR!!!
SO many walls!!
Temperature in the high 80's, low 90's
Stuffed Sno Cones
Picture Time!!
After moving stuff in Matt and Ellis were worn out!
I finally got to unpack all of my beautiful Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick pots and pans.
My kitchen is so tiny, yet so cute!
I miss Shreveport very very much, but I am enjoying my new home with all the walls and closets and new places to discover.
Friday, August 14, 2009
"My future's so bright I gotta wear shades" -Whitney
Hello August. Apparently I have already missed half of the month. In my defense... I've been busy. Went to Camp Eagle with the mid high the first week of August. It was sooo much fun. 10+ hour road trip to Rock Springs, TX driving a 15 passenger van = more fun than I could have imagined. We rock climbed, repelled, zip linned, blobbed, went down the giant slides into the river and had amazing worship. Last night I was really missing it and wished I could go back right now.
Since then I have been preparing to move. A week from today the movers will come, pack up my little life, and tote it down to New Orleans. We have signed a 6 month lease in an apt in Hickory Creek apartments in River Ridge. I hope to find my little dream house or duplex during those 6 months. But in the mean time we do have a guest room and hope to have visitors ALL the time!
I got a job! I will be working at J. Everett Eaves. Their office is in a large building on the corner of St. Charles and Canal in downtown. It should be interesting and fun working down there. After three months I'll get to start working 10 hour days every other week so that I can be off every other Friday. That is going to be wonderful, because Matt has off every Friday. It will make Shreveport trips much easier!
Today is my last day at ISA/Stewart Insurance. I have enjoyed my time here. My coworkers are super fun and made me feel like a part of their work family. I am sad to be leaving them, but excited about the month off of work that I am about to have. Oh yes - I'm not starting my new job until September 14th! The break is going to be sooo nice.
Hello future!
Since then I have been preparing to move. A week from today the movers will come, pack up my little life, and tote it down to New Orleans. We have signed a 6 month lease in an apt in Hickory Creek apartments in River Ridge. I hope to find my little dream house or duplex during those 6 months. But in the mean time we do have a guest room and hope to have visitors ALL the time!
I got a job! I will be working at J. Everett Eaves. Their office is in a large building on the corner of St. Charles and Canal in downtown. It should be interesting and fun working down there. After three months I'll get to start working 10 hour days every other week so that I can be off every other Friday. That is going to be wonderful, because Matt has off every Friday. It will make Shreveport trips much easier!
Today is my last day at ISA/Stewart Insurance. I have enjoyed my time here. My coworkers are super fun and made me feel like a part of their work family. I am sad to be leaving them, but excited about the month off of work that I am about to have. Oh yes - I'm not starting my new job until September 14th! The break is going to be sooo nice.
Hello future!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Welcome ELCA Youth!
ELCA = Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
Youth = 37,000 high shool students
Imagine my surprise when I enter New Orleans around 7:30 pm on Friday and see HOARDS of matching t-shirts inundating the streets of downtown. Imagine my excitement to learn that these 37,000 matching t-shirts have filled up almost every downtown hotel including my 59 story 4-star Sheraton hotel. Imagine my enthusiasm to realize that they are on every floor of my hotel. They are having large group meetings in the hotel conference rooms. They are going to have a dance party in the hotel ballroom Saturday night. The lobby will be constantly full of them. The coffee shops will be overwhelmed with requests for smoothies and frozen coffee treats. Who knew getting a cup of coffee and an elevator up to my room (29th floor) would be sugh a tall request. Oh but don't worry. They all had mandatory lights out at midnight. So I would be assured a least a few hours of sleep before my 8:30am Saturday morning job interview. These ELCA Youth put a damper on my NOLA visit.
On the bright side:
1. My interview went well, and I should be getting an offer tomorrow. Let's hope they want to offer me tons of money so that I don't have to actually look for a job at all.
2. I learned that the Man vs. Food guy is really pretty sucky at his job. He went to ACME Oyster House sometime this year and was only able to eat 15 dozen oysters. And the awesome black man that has worked there for 28 years told us that he really struggled with those 15 dozen. The restaurant record is 42.5 dozen.
3. I am starting to get a feel for the city since Matt and I did a considerable amount of driving around on Saturday.
3. After not falling in love with any places to live my wonderful husband managed to snag us a reservation at Emeril's.
4. It was marvelous! Here was our menu:
Youth = 37,000 high shool students
Imagine my surprise when I enter New Orleans around 7:30 pm on Friday and see HOARDS of matching t-shirts inundating the streets of downtown. Imagine my excitement to learn that these 37,000 matching t-shirts have filled up almost every downtown hotel including my 59 story 4-star Sheraton hotel. Imagine my enthusiasm to realize that they are on every floor of my hotel. They are having large group meetings in the hotel conference rooms. They are going to have a dance party in the hotel ballroom Saturday night. The lobby will be constantly full of them. The coffee shops will be overwhelmed with requests for smoothies and frozen coffee treats. Who knew getting a cup of coffee and an elevator up to my room (29th floor) would be sugh a tall request. Oh but don't worry. They all had mandatory lights out at midnight. So I would be assured a least a few hours of sleep before my 8:30am Saturday morning job interview. These ELCA Youth put a damper on my NOLA visit.
On the bright side:
1. My interview went well, and I should be getting an offer tomorrow. Let's hope they want to offer me tons of money so that I don't have to actually look for a job at all.
2. I learned that the Man vs. Food guy is really pretty sucky at his job. He went to ACME Oyster House sometime this year and was only able to eat 15 dozen oysters. And the awesome black man that has worked there for 28 years told us that he really struggled with those 15 dozen. The restaurant record is 42.5 dozen.
3. I am starting to get a feel for the city since Matt and I did a considerable amount of driving around on Saturday.
3. After not falling in love with any places to live my wonderful husband managed to snag us a reservation at Emeril's.
4. It was marvelous! Here was our menu:
- Appetizer 1: Warm Mississippi Rabbit Remoulade with Fried Green Tomatoes
- Appetizer 2: Seafood Gumbo with Andouille Sausage
- My Main Course: Andouille Crusted Texas Redfish with Grilled Vegetables, Shoestring Potatoes, Glazed Pecans and Creole Meunière Sauce
- Matt's Main Course: Saffron-Chili Dusted Jumbo Gulf Shrimp with Brown Butter-Sweet Potato Grits, Skillet Beans, Benton’s Bacon, Smoked Corn and Mango Chow Chow
- Matt's Dessert: Sticky Toffee Blueberry Bread Pudding with White Chocolate Ice Cream
- My Dessert: Pecan Pie with Bourbon Chocolate Ice Cream, Caramel Sauce and Pecan Brittle
5. I got to enjoy Café du Monde and the French Market Sunday morning before heading home.
Matt heads down there on Wednesday for his orientation Thursday. It was such a long time coming, but seems to be happening so fast!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wish me luck!
I just left the DMV. Got my Class D license so that I can drive a 15 passenger van full of middle schoolers to camp. This is going to be great... Did I mention that it is a 10-11 hour drive?!
Now I am leaving to go to NOLA. The mission this weekend is to find somewhere to live. I also may have a job interview tomorrow. Random - since I haven't even started looking... What can I say? The jobs come to me! Anyway - let's hope this is a successful weekend!!
Now I am leaving to go to NOLA. The mission this weekend is to find somewhere to live. I also may have a job interview tomorrow. Random - since I haven't even started looking... What can I say? The jobs come to me! Anyway - let's hope this is a successful weekend!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Take my picture by the pool 'cause I'm the next big thing
So I have intended to write something the past 3 days. Today I will make it happen!
1. Major League baseball game was fun. It was ridiculously hot for the first hour because we had cheap seats where the sun was shining right on us. But once it went down, we were great! It was also pretty neat, because the Rangers were playing the Twins. The starting pitcher for the Twins is Scott Baker. He is from Shreveport and I know his little brother pretty well. It was cool seeing someone we knew on the big field. Scott pitched 8 straight innings for the win! No good for the Rangers, but great for Scott!
View from our original seats
2. When we got back in town on Sunday the blinds on our door looked like this... It happened sometime Saturday. Apparently Walter was pissed about being left inside and not having anyone to wake up with his annoying cry to let him out. And he made sure he showed us. I can only imagine him jumping, front paws and claws extended, grabbing onto the binds and sliding down until he hit the gound. I am sure he did this over and over until he wore himself out.
3. Matt went to Ruston on Monday with Matt Peters. They ate at Ponchatulas. He brought me back a turkey poboy plain with swiss, onion rings, and ranch on the side. It was sooo good! He also sold back a couple of books and made $291. He went from selling books back to spending $275 in Tech merchandise! We have so much Tech stuff. We will definitely represent well in NOLA. My Civic is already looking better with the LaTech Alumni license plate on the front. After almost 3 years, we replaced the Holmes Honda plate that was there.
4. Craigslist.com is fabulous! I have spent countless hours over the past 3 days looking for places to rent in NOLA. I am pretty stressed right now because of it all, but at least I know there are options. We are going this weekend to look and hopefully find the most perfect, cute, reasonably priced place to live.
5. Matt said goodbye to his Pop last night. Pop didn't die. He is 90 years old Pearl Harbor survivor who is moving to Florida so that his daughter can take care of him. Pop has been a grandfather figure to Matt all of his life. They lived next door to Pop until Matt was 3. Then Jen and Matt both rode the bus to Pop's house for years to be taken care of until his mom got off work. I've been around Pop numerous times before yesterday, but he finally got a hearing aid. It has made a world of difference! Pop is funny!! And it turns out we have similar views of our president. We both think that Obama is a Muslim who is going to let all the terrorists into our country. He made a few jokes while we were there that had me rolling. I didn't know Pop like Matt and his family did, but I feel honored that I got to spend some time with him.
6. We had a potluck lunch at work today - for no reason, I think. I signed up sometime last week to bring a cake or pie. Well, I completely forgot until yesterday afternoon, so I didn't have time to make anything. After dinner at Trejos with Matt's mom and Billy, we hit up Krogers. I ended up with a round cookie cake that was completely iced in yellow with a smiley face on it. I thought it was so funny!
7. I received an email from Matt today that said this:
"Walter just spent the last half hour chasing a fly in the house. He got it, and I could hear it still buzzing as he swallowed it down." Gross! and Cool! all at the same time.
8. I have a lunch date tomorrow with Mims at Bella Fresca. Mmmmm!
1. Major League baseball game was fun. It was ridiculously hot for the first hour because we had cheap seats where the sun was shining right on us. But once it went down, we were great! It was also pretty neat, because the Rangers were playing the Twins. The starting pitcher for the Twins is Scott Baker. He is from Shreveport and I know his little brother pretty well. It was cool seeing someone we knew on the big field. Scott pitched 8 straight innings for the win! No good for the Rangers, but great for Scott!
View from our original seats
View from the seats we moved to in the 9th inning
S'port boy, Scott Baker pitched 8 innings for Twins
2. When we got back in town on Sunday the blinds on our door looked like this... It happened sometime Saturday. Apparently Walter was pissed about being left inside and not having anyone to wake up with his annoying cry to let him out. And he made sure he showed us. I can only imagine him jumping, front paws and claws extended, grabbing onto the binds and sliding down until he hit the gound. I am sure he did this over and over until he wore himself out.
3. Matt went to Ruston on Monday with Matt Peters. They ate at Ponchatulas. He brought me back a turkey poboy plain with swiss, onion rings, and ranch on the side. It was sooo good! He also sold back a couple of books and made $291. He went from selling books back to spending $275 in Tech merchandise! We have so much Tech stuff. We will definitely represent well in NOLA. My Civic is already looking better with the LaTech Alumni license plate on the front. After almost 3 years, we replaced the Holmes Honda plate that was there.
4. Craigslist.com is fabulous! I have spent countless hours over the past 3 days looking for places to rent in NOLA. I am pretty stressed right now because of it all, but at least I know there are options. We are going this weekend to look and hopefully find the most perfect, cute, reasonably priced place to live.
5. Matt said goodbye to his Pop last night. Pop didn't die. He is 90 years old Pearl Harbor survivor who is moving to Florida so that his daughter can take care of him. Pop has been a grandfather figure to Matt all of his life. They lived next door to Pop until Matt was 3. Then Jen and Matt both rode the bus to Pop's house for years to be taken care of until his mom got off work. I've been around Pop numerous times before yesterday, but he finally got a hearing aid. It has made a world of difference! Pop is funny!! And it turns out we have similar views of our president. We both think that Obama is a Muslim who is going to let all the terrorists into our country. He made a few jokes while we were there that had me rolling. I didn't know Pop like Matt and his family did, but I feel honored that I got to spend some time with him.
6. We had a potluck lunch at work today - for no reason, I think. I signed up sometime last week to bring a cake or pie. Well, I completely forgot until yesterday afternoon, so I didn't have time to make anything. After dinner at Trejos with Matt's mom and Billy, we hit up Krogers. I ended up with a round cookie cake that was completely iced in yellow with a smiley face on it. I thought it was so funny!
7. I received an email from Matt today that said this:
"Walter just spent the last half hour chasing a fly in the house. He got it, and I could hear it still buzzing as he swallowed it down." Gross! and Cool! all at the same time.
8. I have a lunch date tomorrow with Mims at Bella Fresca. Mmmmm!
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