Good Children

Odds and ends

Daisy grew out of her infant car seat so we moved her into the deluxe model. She also has two teeth coming in on top giving her a total of four teeth altogether. She's growing entirely too fast.

Adelaide went to a birthday party over the weekend and caught another cold. I have hereby decreed that she and Daisy will not be attending any birthday parties from here on out. In fact, I am doing away with pre-school and maybe their immune systems will be stronger by age 10 ... or 20.

Can I just take a moment to remark on how beautiful the weather has been this spring? New Orleanians complain A LOT about the weather and yet we know every year what we are in store for. However, this spring the beautiful weather has gone on for weeks and months.

The trees and plants have gone from the fresh scent of new blooms to sultry. I don't know all of the smells but they are deep and almost lustful. I know the smell of jasmine and sweet olive but there are so many plants that I have yet to identify.

I broke down and bought some plants at Home Depot yesterday. I say, "broke down" because I am always lured into the gardening center only to spend a lot of money on plants that I can't keep alive. I also planted some herb seeds. I should know how those turn out in about 14 days ... just enough time for the flowers that I bought to die.

Workin' the fest

These saved my life today. My friend who I went to Jazz Fest with went to two Targets this morning and procured the last two pair of rain boots. They saved us from an entire day of wet feet. We did however suffer from over confidence which led my friend into a waist-deep puddle. Ooops.

I was working one of the beverage tents which got me free entry and $10 for lunch. It was a great deal of fun. While working I was parked near the Gentilly stage and the last show of the night was Elvis Costello and Allen Tousaint. It was a great performance.

The last time that I saw [Richard] Elvis Costello was [Detroit] New York in ['68] 1996; twelve years ago. When I realized this today I felt very ooooold. It seems like a lifetime ago and that I was a different person then and still remarkably the same.

Bye, bye Jimmy

Washington is reigning in their boy ... oops. Who will seek out corruption now? Maybe this was an underhanded way to get his ass out of New Orleans before summer kicked in.

Also, a Mexican diplomat with sticky fingers hands in his resignation after his NOLA visit.

We have a strange effect on some people.

Liar, liar

I struggled with my conscious for two whole years as to whether or not I would lie to my children about Santa Claus. However, I have no problem telling them that the child-stealing gypsies are outside whenever I hear the ice-cream truck.

Seriously, why on earth would I want to tell them the truth about that one? I can't afford a daily fudge pop habit for myself, never mind the girls.

Telephone tickle

I just got another poll call. We get them all of the time as local elections loom but usually The Husband beats me to answering it. Additionally, one of their immediate qualifying questions is whether anyone in the household works for an elected official which disqualifies us ... I said, "no" since technically the person that The Husband currently works under was not elected. I probably would have said, "no" anyway ... I'm crazy like that.

Anyway, the poll today was obviously regarding the 2010 mayoral election and there was a huge list of potential candidates including James Bernazzani (no surprise), Mitch Landrieu (do I have the heart to vote for him again?), James Carter, John Georges (what?), Arnie Fielkow, Rob Couhig (I laughed), and a few others. No women were named, however this does not stop Mama D from trying again.

I was just mentioning last night to The Husband that Bernazzani may be running for mayor and that if he won, we'd probably be on lock-down for four years. Could I live with that in order to make the streets safer? Since I don't leave the house on foot after dark as it is, I figure that it wouldn't affect me a whole lot. Back in the day when I was much more liberal, I thought that what Giuliani was doing to New York was disgusting and criminal. Now I totally understand (except for the Disneyness -- that's just whack).

Small world

Before the storm, the  blue house at the corner was owned by a young couple with two huge bullmastiffs. I saw the dogs more than I saw the owners and I never once spoke to them because I'm a snob like that. After the storm I saw them come back a few times to clean up or renovate but they no longer lived there.

The house went on the market a year ago and the new owners are just as reclusive as the previous owners so I never really gave them much thought.

Last night The Husband went out on the town and was approached by the former IT guy for a certain law firm that I used to work for. The IT guy remembered The Husband from his temp work at the firm and because he was espoused to yours truly.

I always liked this IT guy (I tend to like all IT guys) and come to find out he's engaged and living with another worker from the firm. The Husband gets filled in on all of the gossip that happened since I left including the termination of the H.R. director who was a part of my decision to leave. Then they get to talking more and they find out that we have been neighbors for nearly a year.

It turns out that I know the people in the blue house after all. They live three houses away. How weird is that?

Creepy crawlies

I can't let spring go by without a shout out to the much loathed buckmoth caterpillar. I hate you. This is the second year that I have paid to have the oak tree in front of our house sprayed to kill the suckers. Best $65 ever spent.

As if warning a visitor to our fair city about the killer caterpillars wasn't enough, I watched in horror as a palmetto bug climbed the arm of the couch and slipped under the cushion he was sitting on.

I always feel like I have so much explaining to do when Yankees are visiting. The bugs are just so big and out of control here. Yikes.

Hey, if I come up with a word or term and find that someone else has used it via Google, does that make it legit enough to use? i.e. Mallwear

Book Club

I've always wanted to join a book club. I've been a part of one where they read one book and disbanded. So after failing to convince my local friends to start one that I can join, I went and started my own. We've had three meetings so far and I wouldn't call them successful ... the highest number of people to show, including myself, was four and only two of us had finished the book. HOWEVER, I persevere -- committed to reading one new book every six weeks or so.

This month we are reading The New Orleans of Lafcadio Hearn: Illustrated Sketches from the Daily City Item. It's been on my Amazon wish list for a while and it only seems a fitting tribute in honor of another New Orleans writer's passing. So, internet, if you would like to read along, we'll be having our meeting on May 26th at 7:30. The meeting will be at my house (email me for the address). The group (if you can call it that) is comprised of thirty-something women (surprise, surprise) but we are by no means exclusive -- those are the only people who have shown up.

So, think about joining my ragtag club. There are usually free drinks and snacks.

Earth Day

It's Earth Day and Daisy is in disposables due to a laundry back-up. Ironic, yes?

I did some heavy lifting on Sunday and Monday that saved us at least $300 in contractor and plumber fees. It involved an incorrectly installed hot water heater. Hooray for me.

5 ways to reuse your old hard drive

The hard drive on my desktop was ill for quite some time until finally, one day it died. Then it took me several months to replace it. Just today I got my repaired computer back and my old hard drive sealed in a sliver package, for me "to dispose of properly." So I got to wondering what the proper method of hard drive disposal was and then if there were any ways to reuse it. Of course!

1. Um.
2. Oops.
3. Wrong blog.
4. I'm going to keep this post up as a reminder that I haven't had a brain since August of 2005.