Saturday, May 08, 2010

Life as of Lately

A ton has happened, so I'll try to update ya all via pictures. Here's Bri and I at Jazz Fest, watching Richie Havens.
Ever since I watched the Woodstock video, I've wanted to see him perform. He sings 'Freedom' 'Here Comes the Sun," and "Just like a woman."
Since Bri is a mastermind, he scored us volunteering gigs at Jazz Fest so we could get in for free. Bri went for 4 days, and I went for 2, which saved us about 350 buckaroos. WE had to volunteer in the Children's tent for 3 hours a day, and here we are rolling ink on stamps for the kiddos.
Here's the ink press man who made the stamps and we hung out with.
Bri apparently didn't notice, but the first day the actress Maggie Gyllendal came in with her girl to the tent, and later a woman told him who she was. Thankfully, i was able to see her two days later, comin out of the bathroom. Oh star spottin, gotta love it.



My professor, Robby, who was my professor in Australia was in town for Jazz Fest. After 6 almost 7 years of not seeing him, we were reunited... We went to a crawfish boil at his sisters house..yum.
Ironically, we were reunited underneath the "lost kids' sign at jazz fest. This guy has been incredible and he was what pushed and inspired me to do the Peace Corps, as he'd served in Africa.

These pics are out of order, but this is me in the process of mauling my Pork Poboy-which is delicious, has some hot sauce, pork, and spicy coleslaw on it.
Trust me, I'm stoked.
Alligator Sausage Poboy at Jazz Fest.
My favorite once a year pork poboy indulgence..heaven


Shrimp boil at a friends!
Pickin' wild blackberries near City Park w/Bri.
I ended up standing in a huge ol ant pile and the trip ended kinda shortly. But bri went back and picked containers of them. Smoothie Town.
My work bought tickets to go see the Saints play baseball against a military team for a fund-raiser for the Heath Evans Foundation, which provides counseling adn support for sexual assault victims. It was really fun to see these athletes even kick butt at a sport they don't play.
Here's me and coworkers at the game. Sadly, the day after this, my agency laid off me and 2 other workers due to cutbacks. They said that the fair thing to do was lay off the most recently hired...boo... I will be finishing there in May, and then we will see where and what we are being led to do. There are several leads and things going on, so we'll keep you posted!
The place was sold out!
This is in Seaside, where we had to stop , cause Bri said it's one of the first new urbanist community that he's learned about in school. It was pretty cool how it was set up, all very walkable and bike-friendly. SUPER expensive though!

Lil' deer on the way into the State Park Campground we stayed at in Florida.
We headed into Appalachacola, which was 30 miles from where we stayed, and stumbled upon this amazing oyster bar.... 2 dozen oysters, plus 1/2 lb. crab and it was CHEAP!
We never thought we'd be soo hooked on oysters, but the cooked ones have parmeson cheese on them, and the raw ones, you put on a cracker w/horseradish and ketchup and they are DELICIOUS! Let's hope and pray our seafood won't be hurt forever by the horrible oil spill (which people can smell around here, and kids in the parish near it have been getting headaches...soo sad)

Appalachacola

This is where we stayed, right behind the dunes on Cape San Blas, at the State Park Campground. Amazing. 10 miles of untouched beach, for 20 bucks a night.

We were in Florida for my good friends wedding, which was at a house they rented on the Cape, so we were able to walk 20 minutes down the beach to the wedding...too fun!

This is their dog Roxie, who we've dogsat a bunch for. Too cute.
Colleen before the wedding, in her balcony and ready to go.
Hot husband + Hot wife.

THe beach was fabulous...people WERE seeing SHARKS though in the AM and PM, right near the shore as they fished ( bull sharks!) so, we weren't too keen on swimming much.
Back to NAwlins...this was a Crawfish race at a Crawfish boil at a bar near our house....it's amazing, bars have FREE all you can eat crawfish boils, and like I said, since the spill, we are taking advantage while we can. I LOVE hot spicy crawfish! (our crawfish did not win the race :(
My friend Allison and the names of teh crawfish and numbers...
I can probably eat 3-4 lb. now...a lot of people can eat 6-10!
I love pictures of food! This was a breakfast we made, all awesome, local and organic...smoothie, eggs and veggies, gazpacho and Bri's homemade sourdough bread.
This was so fun, my work held a fundraiser at a place called Corks and Canvas, and they teach you to paint a picture and you get to drink wine whenever you're stressed out. Everyone is an artist!
My awesome friend and coworker Ellen, and I.
I didn't take a lot of pictures from French Quarter FEst, as the day we were going, I fell on my bike and banged up my body and slammed my head on the pavement. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet, which literally saved my life that day. We managed to go the next day after my headache was gone, and scored amazign local food for cheap. It's a crawfish and goat cheese crepe and artichoke stuffing. YUM. This food here is to die for.
For our anniversary, Bri and I went to see the production of Wicked. Amazing and so fun at the Mahalia Jackson theater.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The last 2 months!

We went to eat Hibachi the other night..which was really fun save for the Japanese guy who decided to hit me in the face with egg twice before landing it in my mouth....
We went to Oak Alley Plantation which is beautiful with huge oak trees...



My friend Niecie from high school came into town with her boyfriend for a week. LEt's just say yet again, they brought cold weather. It was freezing here, 45 degrees with freezing wind whipping through
Crawfish season has begun!
Alligator tracks! But no alligators-it was too cold that AM to see them, but they are starting to come out from winter time!

We saw a bird though.
Bri and I went to the New Orleans Museum of Art to see the Disney exhibit on how they made all their films. It was super cool and I'm stoked to see the PRincess and the Frog which is in New Orleans!

St. Patty's Day dance party that broke out on the street w/my two friends!
We caught 3 cabbage, 2 potatoes, 2 lemons, and a bunch o beads this year!
This person was soooore after they took off all their beads!

These are 2 of the neighbor kids I babysit for. They are the coolest kids ever and we took them to City Park to feed the ducks. This pic captures their personalities perfectly.
This is my friend/landlords wedding brunch at Ralphs on the Park. It was goregous and so fun! No one does brunch like New Orleans!

The shrimp and grits were to diiieee for!
What did we do with all that cabbage we caught, you say? We make Brians new famous cabbage goat rolls! I crave these!

My second in my life experience with raw oysters. Despite my face, I did end up really liking them!
Post Mardi Gras mess!
Some of the floats are just funny...and too true!
Here's auntie susie + Bri and friends using a creative method to catch beads... It worked!

It was soo nice to see my Auntie Susie and Uncle Frank. I wish the weather had been nice for you! Come back!
I dressed as Michael Jackson for the day.

Being a red head helps get more beads.
At Muses, teh all women parade, Bri caught a shoe, which is a very prized possession and few people get them! He was so happy!
Coach holdin the Lombardi Trophy from the Superbowl parade with all the Saints players!
Drew Brees on the Saints float threw beads to us!

Monday, February 08, 2010

Who Dat!!!

Lindz and I were certainly not very big football fans until this year, when we literally found ourselves watching every game. It has sure been a lot of fun to live in New Orleans for the past year, especially watching how much the team has meant to the City and the on-going recovery.

We ended up watching the game down on Bourbon St. at a small bar. It was really fun to be right in the pulse of the city.

Here I am out hugging and high-fiving strangers during some good play.


This is just some of the post-game mayhem. Lindsey lost an erring, I lost the camera batteries shortly after this, I pretty much lost my voice, but we sure had fun!

Quite excited.

I went and bought the apron in the morning and went to church like this. I thought it was a little more fun than a boring old T-shirt.

Lindsey busting loose.

Went for a stroll in City Park the other day, right across the street.

Stone lion surfing, the coolest new urban sport.

When the Saints played the Vikings we went and walked around the Superdome.

Some hopeful Vikings fans before the game.

This was cute, they had a Saints trivia contest for kids.

It's the Superdome!

Here is the grocery store when people were stocking up for the Vikings game.



Some of the Bourbon St. craziness-this was right after we won and everyone rushed out onto the street--, it was pretty neat just to be down there.