New Orleans - Day 4

Hung out in the French Quarter again today.  We had a good day because Jen gave a dollar to the voodoo guy and wished it.  People are stupid ... we give money for this kind of crap, not because we believe it, but because we are sheep.  I'm going to put a bird feeder in my front lawn, call it the Newburyport Wish Maker and start chipping away at Joey's college expenses.

Saw a couple of acts at The Spotted Cat.  Both were excellent, although I'd rate the solo pianist ahead of this ensemble who played Djengo Reinhardt mostly because the woman here kept asking the five people in the audience why we were so quiet.  Easy answer, lady.  There is only five of us.

Great music anyway.

Jennie looking good watching the show.

Off to our last New Orleans dinner in a few minutes.  It's been an excellent vacation.

New Orleans - Day 3

Bill and I got to indulge in our separate hobbies - Bill went golfing while I hit the bookstore and the WWII museum.  Both were excellent. Bill surprised my by finishing his round of golf in half the predicted time so we met up for lunch.  Bill had a fried baloney sandwich while I told him all about storming the beach at Normandy.

This is a good example of New Orleans culture.  They like their religion with a side of booze.

Next stop, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the outside sculpture park.  Here are a couple of our favorites.

Dinner at La Petite Grocery and then back home for a nightcap at the honor bar.  Bill is still working on his free birthday beers.

Bill here - let me bore you with a golf story.  I went to The English Turn course here in New Orleans. It was beautiful and challenging.  I shot a 92 which was ok by me.  Best shot of the day - short par 4, 287 yards.  I can usually drive about 240-250.  I hit this one just over the green, about 290 yards.  I had a 20 footer for eagle.  (I ended up shooting par, which is why I shoot in the 90's at best)

New Orleans - Day 2

It's all about food.  We explored the French Quarter - - sort of like being in a public rest room for 10 square blocks.  Between the dirty streets, the Hustler clubs and the cheesy tourist shops I was glad we decided to stay uptown.  I did, of course, find a bookstore and Bill asked for a nontouristy lunch place.  That's how we found Coops (below) for some gumbo, rabbit jambalaya and southern fried chicken.

 We each had the tasting menu for dinner to try to get in more local fare.  Who knew turtle soup was so delicious?  Does Campbell's make this in a can?  The restaurant was full of paintings by local artists, various dolls and statues lined the ceiling and the owner took us under her wing, coming to the table with several pages of notes on places to go (one whole page devoted to book stores).

New Orleans - Day 1

I am travel agent of the year.  Not only is the room in the B&B ginormous with its own balcony but the common area has an honor bar with beer on tap for $2 a pint!  The photo shows Bill enjoying his second B&B brew.  That french window leads out to our balcony, out of photo to the left is a little alcove with a day bed, and behind me is the bathroom which is the size of our living room at home.

After trying our first po'boys for lunch we wandered into the various shops and galleries on Magazine St.   Tony Mose was one such artist (gallery pictured above) who chatted up a storm, taking us into his back room to see a work in progress and tried to give Bill artist to artist encouragement.  The key, he says is to paint your own apples, not someone else's apples.  And then someone will come along who loves your apples.  I love Bill's apples.

Do Witches Read?

Diane and I decided to check out a couple of events at the lit festival referenced earlier this weekend.  While I wanted to pose with literary minded people (ok, so this guy isn't a famous author but his blog is read around the world), Diane was more interested in posing with the locals.

The witch said she posed for tips - my tip is, get the money first!

Shut up and deal

Poker Night at Dave's went as predicted.  Host Dave stole our money.

He tried to downplay his experience, but compared to John and I, Dave is Phil Ivey (I had to Google "famous poker players").

Tony, meanwhile, tipped his hand on his poker experience with lines like "when I used to play poker with my Dad he'd smell his cards when he had a bad hand and yell to my Mom 'Honey, this hand smells like shit'".  Tony had all the lingo, stats and playing strategy down pat.  He came in second to Dave

Now that I've played my first Texas Hold 'Em I have picked up some of the slang.

Tilt: Playing recklessly and badly due to frustration from having lost.

I would say this described me after a couple of beers and many lost hands.

Tell: A clue, hint or mannerism that reveals the true strength of a player's hand.

Read: The art of identifying another player's tells and analyzing his play in order to determine his pocket cards.

I've learned that groaning when you get a bad card probably isn't being as subtle as you should.

Bust: Losing your entire table stack or your entire bank roll.

I became too familiar with this term.

Ultimately, it was a fun night and if you consider that Dave paid for the pizza I'd say I broke even.

Joey, are you reading this??

We continue to clean Joey's room.  Bill moved the platform bed and found a garbage heap.  How do wrappers and receipts and spare change and the phone charger all wind up under the bed when the bed is only a half inch off the ground?

Hmm...looks like it wasn't all garbage.....

(For the record, Sports Illustrated, not real porn)

Pizza Night Deviation

Our first Friday night without Joey and we are totally off the routine!

It looks like we are starting the 'No Umbrella' series.  Bill and I were caught in the rain on our way to the opening event at a local lit fest - - this time in the city of witches. (I've finally figured out that people DO google these things - best not to name names.)

Despite the rain, we looked good. 

 Cocktail hour just became more fun!  Fellow Nbpt festival planners Alida and Linda were there with their husbands.  Bill played Travel Match Maker to see if the four of them should take a trip to Argentina together.  (where was this game when were planning our trip with Phyllis?)  Shortly into the game, Linda and Norm's marriage dissolved.

Next up - the actual literary event.  A bad sound system made it impossible to hear.  It was 45 minutes of listening to Charlie Brown's teacher.  Pure misery.  And because we seated ourselves on the staircase in the center of the room we couldn't just sneak out without making a scene.  Once home, Bill went running for the solace of scotch and a cigar while I found comfort in 2 episodes of Friday Night Lights.  This is what we get for trying to mix things up.

Tears of a clown

Took a chance that I could go out to dinner and back without an umbrella - - I was wrong.   

Another supposed festival planning night.  I met with new committee member Sandi to talk about starting a festival blog.  We talked about the blog for approximately 5 minutes.  The rest of the time we talked about work, aspirations, not really stalking someone and various BBC programming.  This is what I looked like when I arrived at home.

It's not the same

Our first Wednesday night without 3 dimensional Joey.  The 2 dimensional version on a stick worked for a little while, but eventually we noticed that it wasn't texting his friends while we talked to him, or leaving open bags of chips in his bed.  We miss the real thing.

Traveling Trudi

Jennie and Petey entertaining me, distracting me from missing the boys.

Heard from Mom and Joey after they landed in Seattle.  My Mom, not an experienced traveler, had the misfortune of someone taking her bag in error.  They got it back after a half hour or so, but that's a half hour I'm glad I didn't participate in.  Mom was already blaming me for not telling her that people don't lock their bags up anymore due to TSA security checks.  She ended up leaving the key at home and somehow I got blamed.

Take care of my baby, UDub

We look happy, but we're not.

Joey flies to Washington tomorrow morning starting the next adventure in his (and our) life.

He's nervous.  I'm sad.  (Jen and I are now empty nesters ... we'll be sitting in the dining room on Wednesday night eating another crock pot meal arguing about her trying to force me to watch another episode of Friday Night Lights while I complain about her burping out loud in memory of Joey and me telling her it's a breach of etiquette .... wait, this is our life now ... maybe it won't be so different)

Joey amused Jen by telling her he has to pick up Fabreze in Washington because Kieran's roommate told him it takes away bad odor.  Already he's maturing and he hasn't left yet.  

He's growing up too quick!  Two minutes ago he was waddling on the beach with a bathing suit full of poo telling us he thought it was gas but it was more.  Now he's using Fabreze.

What a crock!!

We invested in a slow cooker this weekend.  In theory, we could load it up with meat & veg in the morning and dinner would be ready when we got home from work.  Ha ha - did any of you think I would really do that??  I can't even go to work without unplugging the toaster and the dehumidifier so fat chance I'm going to actually have a cooking appliance in operation while I'm 45 miles away!!   That being said - our weekends are going to be dedicated to pot roasts and pulled pork.  Yum.

Newman.......

We watched The Hustler tonight.  I was disappointed that it was not about the Porn King Larry Flynt.
Jen is in love with the deceased Paul Newman.
Still no camera cord so we have to keep using the Photo Booth app.

Hanging in the Hood

Jen made us watch Xmen tonight.  She has a crush on James McEvoy.  Even when he plays a mutant, which in my opinion is in every movie he's in.....

I may dream of beating a sugarplum fairy tonight

Jen's asleep while I blog the blog of anger.

Yes, I'm angry tonight.  

Lost my cell phone.  

I drove Joey's car while mine was being fixed after the Joey-ticket episode.  His car overheated just as I got to Newburyport.  

So now his, Bret and my car all are in the shop today.  

I smashed a glass while washing the dishes.  

And I also lost the cord to the camera which means the only picture I could upload was this dark, angry photo.

I'm still whining....

Happy Birthday, Mother.

We celebrated with dinner at Michael's Harborside.  I enjoyed a delicious Boddington's Ale.  Tonight's inappropriate dinner conversation included a discussion about employees cheating on their spouses with workmates and about another who talks too openly about masturbation.

Meanwhile, on a more wholesome but sad topic, Joey has six days before he heads out to Washington.... (see him starting to fade, like Michael J Fox in Back to the Future?).

I am still reeling from Bret leaving (I keep thinking about him with his little army backpack heading  into the Boston recruiting office and taking a quick look back at me...kills me).

Now I'll have the same thing with Joey.  I can't take it.

The Dog Ate My Homework!!

A Packed night tonight - festival training for a new committee member and then a night of BBC's The Hour at Denise's.  

Archie is my boyfriend on Pond Street. I think its important to pick a partner who has the same coloring and therefore can be a photo enhancer.  

Just to be clear - I like the bad boys.  Archie went all rebel-without-a-cause tonight and had a good chew on Henry's homework.  It's nice to see a the reality in a cliche every once in a while.  

Meanwhile, Pete (in the background) is celebrating a birthday tomorrow.  Happy Birthday to the official chef of the NPPS!

Who would run our blog?

When Jen finally dumps me to the curb this will be reason number one.

Cactus envy

I have a new cactus.  I put it in Joey's room (aka Joey's room + my art room).

I bought myself this little treat to boost my spirits after Bret shipped off for basic training.  

He just called and is in Georgia now beginning his big adventure.

Maybe I'll send him a cactus.

Alcohol has a healing quality

Dealing with Bret's departure has been difficult...so we tried to get over it with good food and alcohol at Ceia Kitchen. We made a vow not to post food pictures but we are taking liberties with that promise tonight. I had yummy pasta with giant mushrooms and I can assure my mother that I ate every single one of them.

Army training, Sir

Bret said some goodbyes today before he ships off for basic training Monday.

I'm barely holding it together.

We had a nice surprise tonight when Stacey and Dave brought little Nate over for dinner.

Didi is sleeping over. She's reading her Kindle upstairs in bed as I type. Hanging with our friends is always a fun time, but I was especially appreciative tonight because it took my mind off of Bret.

Sunrise Service

We skipped our posting last night. Bill was miserable - he's misplaced his wallet, Joey is off on a good-bye tour of his east coast friends, Bret leaves Monday for boot camp, no one has posted a comment on the blog in ages - everything is crap.

Joey's road trip started at 5 AM so we are up bright and early. It's nice to sit out here and watch the sky change. I tried to capture the orange glow of sunrise but my inner Ansel Adams is still asleep. At least I'm sneaking in a post before our followers get up this morning.

Bonus Night at the Eppich's

I was supposed to go out with Jeff last night (how many times have THOSE words been spoken?) but he was sick (about as many times as THOSE were were spoken, I suppose). So at the last minute I finagled myself an invite to Sudbury for dinner and a show. The show was called "Twister". It was supposed to be interactive but I am still recovering from debilitating back pain (see last night's entry and try to ignore Bill's snarky comment) so I took the supporting role of Spinner.

Joey "Toast" MacKay

One of our favorite You Tube videos is Kent "Toast" French doing his amazing hand clapping. When I looked up fastest hand clapping I was surprised to see that other charlatans claim to be the *new* fastest hand clappers but I could have sworn I heard the sound of clapping after the hands stopped moving. Plus I think Toast's video is the best in terms of instruction and entertainment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNXElmEUIJo

Meanwhile, our Wednesday dinner conversations are getting a little more adventuresome each week. I like to think that we are giving Joey conversation starters for when he gets into the dorm. You know, like "Have you ever applied hemorrhoid cream on a stick to some one else from another room?" That's going to be a crowd pleaser.

PS Notice that I'm hunched over? My back hurts. Bill said I don't talk about it enough so I should be sure to add it to the blog so the whole world knows that I have back pain.

Wisteria and birds

The pictures above show how I am not well suited to be a homeowner. I've always been style over substance; impractical over practical. Everything I've read says you should not let the wisteria take over your house. It's a particularly vicious vine who strangles whatever it grows around, not unlike a boa constrictor. I love the wisteria and have allowed its free growth to squeeze the posts of our porch. This won't end well.

It's very similar to my love of the bird. I hooked up three bird feeders outside our bedroom. I loved hearing the birds jockeying for the prime position on the bird feeder. I loved listening to them chirp outside the window. It made me very happy. When the squirrel population increased I wouldn't listen to Jen when she said it was because of the bird seed. It wasn't until we were getting skunks on a regular basis that I gave in and took the bird feeders down. Even now, when the evidence is so obvious, I still am thinking of ways to bring my birds back.

Love everything about Gloucester except that damn Gorton's Fisherman song

Jennie dominated Gloucester today. On a whim (and a found free day) we headed south for lunch.

A few stores were closed for the holiday but we found Alchemy, a hip little restaurant in the downtown section. Good find. Great beer selection. Excellent fresh food. Fun waitstaff. I had one of the best burgers I've had in years.

There's a joke in here about all the men who've sailed on the well worn ship Jenny but it would only make me angry.

Jennie shares tea with the bear family.

We stopped into an artisan who specializes in glass jewelry (Beth Williams ). She gave us a demonstration (protective eyewear a must). I felt a little bad only spending $10 on a few beads.

Sugar.......ah, Honey Honey ..... Jen is my candy-girl.... (and apparently my stripper-girl, too)

I bought this wicked cool shirt with Fabio painted on the back. If I wear it to work do you think I'd be pulled into a conference room to let me know it is inappropriate for work?

Fabio is never inappropriate....

To sleep, perchance to dream...

Wyatte and Malikai are fresh as daisies.  They got up happy and peppy and bursting with energy.  The adults, on the other hand, are sleepy and cranky and can't wait for nap time.   And I don't just mean the adults in #11 - no doubt every one on Atwood Street is a looking forward to a good night sleep tonight after Malikai's legendary 2 hour howl fest last night.  

Then again, who could hold their sleeplessness against this adorable curly headed kid?